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Kerry backs Iraq against ‘existential’ militant threat

Agence France-Presse

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US Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders to urge a speeding up of the government formation process in order to face down the insurgents

EXISTENTIAL THREAT. US Secretary of State John Kerry discusses the security situation in Iraq with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on June 23, as insurgents continue to expand their control across the country. Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool/EPA

BAGHDAD, Iraq – US Secretary of State John Kerry on June 23, Monday, pledged “intense” support for Iraq against the “existential threat” of a major militant offensive pushing toward Baghdad from the north and west.

Flying in from Jordan, Kerry met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders to urge a speeding up of the government formation process in order to face down the insurgents.

The United States’ “support will be intense, sustained, and if Iraq’s leaders take the steps needed to bring the country together, it will be effective,” Kerry told journalists in Baghdad.

But the danger to Iraq, he said, is dire.

“It is a moment of decision for Iraq’s leaders,” Kerry said. “Iraq faces an existential threat and Iraq’s leaders have to meet that threat.”

During their talks, Maliki also emphasized the danger of the crisis, telling Kerry it “represents a threat not only to Iraq but to regional and international peace,” his office said.

Iraqi security forces are struggling to hold their ground in the face of an insurgent onslaught that has seized major areas of five provinces, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sparked fears the country could be torn apart.

Maliki’s security spokesman said Monday “hundreds” of soldiers had been killed since the insurgents, led by the powerful jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), launched their offensive on June 9.

The announcement on television by Lieutenant General Qassem Atta is the most specific information provided so far by the government on losses sustained by the security forces.

Last Syria crossing falls

The militants are continuing their charge, overrunning the Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria, officers said on Monday.

The capture of the post means all official crossings with Iraq’s neighbor to the west are outside government control, and increases the militants’ ability to bring men and materiel across the border from Syria.

Insurgents also overran the strategic Shiite-majority northern town of Tal Afar and its airport, an official and witnesses said Monday.

“The town of Tal Afar and the airport… are completely under the control of the militants,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said security forces had departed the town after days of heavy fighting, and confirmed militants were in control.

Atta said security forces were still fighting in the Tal Afar area, but added: “Even if we withdrew from Tal Afar or any other area, this does not mean that it is a defeat.”

The town, located along a strategic corridor to Syria, had been the largest in the northern province of Nineveh not to fall to militants.

The latest advances came after insurgents at the weekend swept into the towns of Rawa and Ana in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, after taking the Al-Qaim border crossing with Syria.

The government said its forces made a “tactical” withdrawal from the towns, control of which allows the militants to widen a strategic route to neighboring Syria where they also hold stretches of territory.

As Kerry began his visit, 69 detainees were killed in an attack by militants on a convoy carrying them in Babil province.

One policeman and eight gunmen were also killed in clashes that erupted during the attack in the Hashimiyah area, according to a police captain and a doctor. It was not immediately clear how the detainees died.

ISIS aims to create an Islamic state incorporating both Iraq and Syria, where the group has become a major force in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

‘Rise above sectarian motivations’

Washington wants Arab states to bring pressure on Iraq’s leaders to speed up government formation, which has made little headway since April elections, and has tried to convince them ISIS poses as much of a threat to them as to Iraq.

Kerry warned all countries, particularly in the Gulf, that “there is no safety margin whatsoever in funding a group like ISIS.”

The group has commandeered an enormous quantity of cash and resources as a result of the advance, bolstering coffers that were already the envy of militant groups around the world.

US leaders have stopped short of calling for Maliki to step down, but there is little doubt that they feel he has squandered the opportunity to rebuild Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011.

“The United States would like to see the Iraqi people find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq,” Kerry told reporters in Cairo on Sunday.

A top US official who has been on the ground in Iraq told reporters that there was “a lot of anxiety and a lot of looking to the US for help.”

US President Barack Obama has offered to send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, but has so far not backed air strikes as requested by Baghdad. – Rappler.com

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