Kerry Says Iran Has Role to Play in Fight Against IS; French Jets Hit Targets in Iraq
by VOA News September 19, 2014
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that there was a role for Iran to play in the global effort to tackle hardline Islamic State militants, who have seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Kerry expressed 'deep outrage'' at the killing, kidnapping, rape and torture of Iraqis and citizens of other countries by Islamic State.
'The coalition required to eliminate ISIL [Islamic State] is not only, or even primarily, military in nature,' Kerry told a United Nations Security Council meeting.
'It must be comprehensive and include close collaboration across multiple lines of effort,' he said. 'There is a role for nearly every country in the world to play, including Iran.'
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned the Islamic State group and called for greater international support for the Iraqi government to counteract militants.
All 15 council members approved the statement at a meeting chaired by the U.S. secretary of state.
France strikes
Kerry's comments came as French fighter jets hit an Islamic State military depot in northeastern Iraq, the first such airstrikes by French forces.
The office of French President Francois Hollande said Rafale jets destroyed the depot and there would be more operations in the coming days. Iraqi military officials said the airstrikes targeted positions near the town of Zumar.
On Thursday, Hollande said his country was ready to conduct airstrikes requested by Iraq once reconnaissance flights had identified targets. He has said the military operation would be limited to Iraq and would not include any ground troops.
U.S. President Barack Obama praised the French announcement, saying that 'France is a strong partner in our efforts against terrorism.'
The United States already has launched more than 170 airstrikes against IS targets, and has said it would hit targets in Syria if necessary.
Obama said Thursday that more than 40 countries, including Arab nations, have agreed to join the coalition.
Cleric's qualified endorsement
The French military action appeared to win qualified endorsement from Iraq's top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
In a Friday sermon, delivered by one of his aides, the elderly cleric said Iraq needed foreign help but shouldn't become subservient to outside powers.
'Even if Iraq is in need of help from its brothers and friends in fighting black terrorism, maintaining the sovereignty and independence of its decisions is of the highest importance,'' Sistani's spokesman Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala'i said.
Sistani speaks for millions of Iraq's majority Shiites and has a worldwide following.
Islamic State fighters, who have controlled much of Syria's eastern oil and agricultural provinces for more than a year, swept through mainly Sunni Muslim regions of north Iraq in mid-June, seizing cities including Mosul and Tikrit and halting only a few dozen miles north of the capital Baghdad.
Iraq's army and Shiite militia forces have battled the militants and their allies, but failed to make significant territorial gains.
Car bombs, some of them claimed by Islamic State, have been a near daily occurrence in Baghdad. Two car bombs killed nine people there on Friday and a bomb in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk in the north killed eight people, security officials said.
Washington launched airstrikes for the first time in August to halt an IS advance on the Kurdish autonomous capital Irbil.
Kurds make gains
The attacks have helped Kurds claw back lost territory, and this week they retook ground in the northern province of Nineveh and near the town of Zummar, which remains under IS control.
Elsewhere in Nineveh, the Islamic State offered another sign of its growing authority over Iraqis, creating a police force 'to implement the orders of the religious judiciary', according to a well-known militant Islamist website.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday authorized equipping and training moderate Syrian rebels to battle the militants, one day after the U.S. House had approved the legislation.
Obama said the congressional approval shows the world that Americans are united in combating the militant group.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.
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