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Obama orders more soldiers to Baghdad

September 3, 2014

The White House has ordered another 350 US troops to be sent to protect US interests in Baghdad. Top US officials are also Middle-East bound, aiming to build a regional partnership against jihadists.

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Irak USA Soldat Bagdad
Image: dpa

President Obama on Tuesday ordered some 350 troops to be sent to Baghdad, to protect the US embassy and staff in the Iraqi capital.

"The president authorized the Department of Defense to fulfill a Department of State request for approximately 350 additional US military personnel to protect our diplomatic facilities and personnel in Baghdad, Iraq," a White House statement said.

In clarification, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said the move would bring the total number of US military personnel bolstering diplomatic security in Iraq up to some 820.

The announcement, which followed the release of a video purporting to show the killing of US journalist Steven Sotloff, was accompanied by the announcement of efforts to build a partnership against the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group.

Irak Soldaten und Shiitische Kämpfer IS
US airstrikes bolstered efforts by Iraqi and Kurdish fighters toImage: Reuters

IS anger at airstrikes

IS, which is accused of carrying out systematic ethnic cleansing across northern Iraq, said it had killed Sotloff in retaliation for US air strikes against jihadists. Last month, the group killed US journalist James Foley in what it claimed was a response to Washington's military intervention.

The Sunni extremist group has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in the regions of Iraq and Syria that it controls, having stormed minority Christian and Yazidi areas. The group has also come threateningly close to both Baghdad and the Kurdish capital, Irbil.

The White House also said Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and presidential counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco would visit key allies in the Middle East "in the near-term to build a stronger regional partnership" against IS.

Obama, who left Washington on Tuesday to visit Europe, is expected to consult NATO allies at a summit in Wales about ways to develop a broad-based international coalition against IS.

rc/jm (AFP, Reuters)

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The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, is an unrecognized state and active Jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria influenced by the Wahhabi movement.In its unrecognized self-proclaimed status as an independent state, it claims the territory of Iraq and Syria. Fewer than 1,000 fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant advanced against Iraq's largest city of Mosul on 10 June, sending two Iraqi army divisions (nearly 30,000 soldiers) to a chaotic retreat. Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ihadist group have seized the north Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit and have vowed to move on Baghdad to topple the Shiite-dominated government. Photo via ABACAPRESS.COM

'Gruesome evidence of ethnic cleansing' in Iraq

'Gruesome evidence of ethnic cleansing' in Iraq

Amnesty International claims to have found powerful evidence of systematic ethnic cleansing by the "Islamic State" jihadist group. Meanwhile, the United Nations has opted to send a team to investigate alleged atrocities. (02.09.2014)
September 2, 2014