US airstrikes signal growing role in Iraq
The US launches four airstrikes against Islamic State forces to protect Iraq’s Haditha dam, escalating its intervention in the conflict.
US airstrikes are claimed to have wiped out an Islamic State (IS) patrol trying to attack Iraq’s Haditha dam in the west of the country – the country’s second biggest hydroelectric facility which also provides millions with water.
Four airstrikes were launched involving US drones and manned F/A-18 fighter aircraft, in the first reported US operation in the western Anbar province since it started attacks on IS forces in the north of the country in August, bringing its planes closer to the border with Syria.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the airstrikes had been carried out to tackle IS, also known as Isil, at the request of the Iraqi government.
“If that dam would fall into Isil’s hands or if that dam would be destroyed, the damage that that would cause would be very significant and it would put a significant, additional and big risk into the mix in Iraq,” he told reporters.
Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the leader of a pro-Iraqi government paramilitary force in the west, said the strikes wiped out an IS patrol near the dam.
Growing US role
Two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on mobile artillery near the city of Irbil, said the Pentagon.
Iraqi special forces, tribesmen and police launched a ground offensive on Sunday against IS militants following the air strikes, according to the Washington Post.
The airstrikes signal an expansion of the limited US military role outlined by President Barack Obama after he first announced the authorisation of airstrikes in August.
The US has previously lent backing to Iraqi and Kursidh forces to reclaim the Mosul dam and attacked militants who had besieged the city of Amerli.
Mr Obama is due to make a speech on Wednesday outlining his strategy to go on the offensive against IS.
And in a further widening of the effort to tackle IS in Iraq, Prime Minister David Cameron is preparing a diplomatic “charm offensive” to build wider Arab support for western military action against IS in Iraq and Syria, according to the Independent on Sunday.
IS has overrun large areas of Iraq and Syria and declared a cross-border Islamic caliphate.
Since January, Iraqi government forces and a small number of Sunni militias have been confronting Islamic State and other fighters in Anbar.
Gathering support
Iraq’s outgoing Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari welcomed the growing US air campaign and said IS was trying to control strategic assets, including dams across Iraq.
The militants seized control of a dam outside Falluja in April and flooded areas on the rural outskirts of western Baghdad, displacing thousands of people.
It abandoned that dam, but last month went on to take control of Mosul dam, Iraq’s biggest, before being forced out by US air strikes and Kurdish fighters.
US President Barack Obama said last week key Nato allies stood ready to join Washington in military action to defeat IS in Iraq, and vowed to “take out” the leaders of a movement he said was a major threat to the West.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday are expected to issue a resolution backing Iraqi efforts to confront militants who have overrun large areas of Iraq and Syria.
An Iraqi diplomatic source said Baghdad had proposed a draft resolution that would endorse its efforts to confront Islamic State militants and condemn the group’s actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Reuters cited other diplomatic sources saying the Arab League would agree a resolution endorsing the US military campaign against the group.