Iraq Says It Needs More U.S. Aid To Defeat Islamic State
In a meeting in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraq's prime minister told the U.S. that although the Islamic State's power is on the decline, the Middle Eastern country needs more assistance to fully defeat the terrorist organization.
Speaking at Baghdad's International Zone on Tuesday, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Iraq needs more heavy weaponry to fully defeat the Islamic State. The prime minister also commended U.S. airstrikes as being one of the main defeating forces of the terrorist organization, which previously held power in areas of Iraq and Syria.
"We are very thankful for the support that's been given to us," Abadi told Hagel. "Our forces are very much advancing on the ground. But they need more air power and more [...]. heavy weaponry. We need that."
Hagel said upon his arrival in Iraq that the Middle Eastern country must be willing to lead in order to defeat the Islamic State.
"Just as in Afghanistan, it is their country, they have to lead, they are the ones that are going to have to be responsible for end results," Hagel said.
"We can help, we can train, we can assist, we can advise - and we're doing that, and we'll support them - but the inclusiveness of a government that all their people can join and be part of and have confidence in and trust in is going to be essential to their future," the secretary of state added.
The meeting between Hagel and Abadi comes one day after the White House warned of global backlash in response to a CIA report detailing the interrogation tactics used by the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in an effort to find al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden.
