Showing posts with label CEASE-FIRE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CEASE-FIRE. Show all posts

August 11, 2014

Capitalizing on U.S. Bombing, Kurds Retake Iraqi Towns, Maliki Refusing to Resign


Men who volunteered to fight with Kurdish forces took up position in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday. Credit Mohammed Jalil/European Pressphoto Agency       

With American strikes beginning to show clear effects on the battlefield, Kurdish forces counterattacked Sunni militants in northern Iraq on Sunday, regaining control of two strategic towns with aid from the air.

The developments came as political tensions mounted in Baghdad. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki went on state television early Monday and redoubled his demands for a new term.

The American airstrikes, carried out by drones and fighter jets, were intended to support the Kurdish forces fighting to defend Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, according to a statement by the United States Central Command. They destroyed three military vehicles being used by the militant group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and damaged others, the statement said, adding that the warplanes also destroyed a mortar position.
 
 
 
President Obama and other American officials have said that more ambitious American support would be predicated on the Iraqi political leadership breaking a long deadlock and appointing a new prime minister, one who would head a more inclusive government than the Shiite-dominated administration of Mr. Maliki, and who could reach a political settlement with Iraq’s disaffected Sunni population.