Friday, August 22, 2014

The Kurds Plan to Win Back Territory Lost to ISIS with U.S. Aid

Iraq's Kurdish armed forces, known as peshmerga, are using heavy and light weapons received from the U.S. as they fight to seize back territory taken by Islamic State fighters this month, a Kurdish official said Thursday.
Bolstered by the deliveries and assisted by U.S. fighter jets and Iraqi national forces, the Kurdish fighters aim to "retake all the areas that were under our control," peshmerga spokesman Halgourd Hikmat said in an interview Thursday. "We haven't set a date when we will start" a fresh offensive, along a 1,050-kilometer (650-mile) front, he said.
Peshmerga have already recorded some successes, ousting insurgents from Mosul Dam, the country's largest, after losing the structure to militants who have rampaged through northern areas of OPEC's No. 2 crude oil producer since June.
Although the United States has provided weapons to the Kurdish forces, "we still need more military equipment," Hikmat said. "The Islamic State has capabilities. We want developed weapons to stop its advance."
Iraq's stock exchange gained for the third day Thursday after U.S. President Barack Obama claimed that "important progress" has been made in the fight against the Islamic State. The ISX General Index advanced 1.4 percent to 101.64, the highest since June 19.
Some European powers have said they will provide Kurdish forces with military supplies. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government cleared the way Wednesday for Germany to supply Iraqis, while Italian lawmakers approved arms for Kurdish forces hours after the German decision.
Merkel said Thursday during an election rally in the German city of Grimma that Germany won't send any troops to Iraq.
Read the rest of the Story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.


No comments: