Kurdish forces retake 2 towns from Sunni militants
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Reinvigorated by American airstrikes, Kurdish forces retook two towns from Sunni militants yesterday, achieving one of their first victories after weeks of retreating, a senior Kurdish military official said.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters were able to push the militants of the Islamic State group out of the villages of Makhmour and al-Gweir, some 45 kilometres from Irbil, Brig Gen Shirko Fatih said.
The United States launched a fourth round of airstrikes yesterday against militant vehicles and mortars firing on Irbil as part of efforts to blunt the militants’ advance and protect American personnel near the Kurdish capital.
US warplanes and drones have also attacked militants firing on minority Yazidis around Sinjar, which is in the far west of the country near the Syrian border.
In the Kurdish capital yesterday, the president of the semi-autonomous Kurdish regional Government, Massoud Barzani, said American military support has been effective thus far, but, he added, peshmerga soldiers require more firepower to defeat the militants.
“We are not asking our friends to send their sons to fight on our behalf,” Barzani told The Associated Press in a brief interview. “What we are asking our friends is to provide us support and to cooperate with us in providing us with heavy weapons that we are able to fight this terrorist group.”
Barzani met with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who travelled to Baghdad and Irbil pledging France’s commitment to providing humanitarian aid. Fabius also met with Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and called on Iraqi leaders to unite in the face of the escalating crisis.
“The marching order is solidarity,” Fabius said. He called on Iraqis to form a “government of broad unity so that all Iraqis feel represented and together lead the battle against terrorism”.
A week ago, Al-Maliki ordered the Iraqi air force to support Kurdish forces against the militants, in a rare instance of cooperation between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, which have for years been locked in disputes over oil and territory.
Al-Maliki is seeking a third term as prime minister, but the latest crisis has prompted even his closest allies to call for his resignation. A parliament session scheduled for today to discuss the election and who might lead the next Iraqi Government was postponed until August 19.
