Iraq Sought U.S. Strikes in March and Again in May Against Terrorists
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (Worthy News)– As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) threatened Western Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out air strikes against the terrorist organization, according to the New York Times.
However, those requests were denied as President Obama has been reluctant to open a new chapter in the conflict since the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.
The Obama administration has carried out drone strikes against terrorist organizations in Yemen and Pakistan recently; however it refused to get directly involved in Iraq. But despite the military advances by ISIS, administration officials have insisted that the United States is not “actively considering using warplanes or armed drones to strike them,” according to the NY Times.
In March, Iraq’s top leaders hoped that the United States would use its air power to strike at ISIS staging and training areas inside of Iraq, and help Iraq’s military forces fight the jihadist network.
When Kenneth M. Pollack, a former C.I.A. analyst and National Security Council official, visited Baghdad in early March, Iraqi officials asked for military assistance.
“Iraqi officials at the highest level said they had requested manned and unmanned U.S. airstrikes this year against ISIS camps in the Jazira desert,” Pollack told the NY Times.
Again in May, Iraqi Prime Minister submitted a written request to the White House, for military assistance to fight the terrorist group; however it went unheeded.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon spokesman Adm. John F. Kirby stated, “Ultimately, this is for the Iraqi security forces, and the Iraqi government to deal with.”