Iraqi PM calls for more support against 'IS'

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (photo, center) said Tuesday that his country was not getting enough support to counter the advance of "Islamic State" ("IS") militants.

At the meeting in Paris of top officials from Iraq and 20 other countries - including Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius - al-Abadi called for more intelligence and more action from the allies against extremists.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also planned to attend the conference, but he had to fly back to the US after suffering a cycling accident.

The meeting came after the jihadists conquered both the Iraqi city of Ramadi and the historic Syrian city of Palmyra.

More than 4,100 airstrikes by the US-led international coalition have not contained the gains by IS radicals.

No will to fight?

In Paris, al-Abadi also reacted to accusations made by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. The Pentagon chief had told CNN that Ramadi fell to the militants because the Iraqi forces "just showed no will to fight," which the Iraqi premier rejected.

Al-Abadi suggested that a lack of intelligence from the coalition played a role in losing Ramadi, underlining that Iraqi forces "are prepared to fight."

Another problem he highlighted at the meeting in Paris was that more and more foreign fighters kept crossing the border to Iraq. Al-Abadi added that the majority of IS fighters were foreign, whereas less than a year ago, the group was 60 percent Iraqi.

das/kms (AP, AFP)