Abadi rejects foreign ground forces in crisis-hit Iraq
Iran Press TV
Mon Sep 29, 2014 3:12PM GMT
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his country does not need foreign ground troops in the battle against the ISIL Takfiri militants.
On Monday, Abadi underscored that Iraqi government troops and volunteer forces are completely capable of defeating ISIL terrorists.
The remarks come a day after Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'afari warned about the global dimension of the threat posed by ISIL militants while rejecting foreign boots on the country's soil to battle the terror group.
The top Iraqi diplomat further insisted on Saturday that the government in Baghdad has never asked for any foreign ground deployment in the Arab country.
Ja'afari further noted that Baghdad does not favor deployment of foreign ground troops to crush the foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists in his country, emphasizing that with adequate aerial support, Iraqi army and volunteer forces as well as the country's Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are well capable of battling the ISIL Takfiri terrorists on their own.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said that American forces may be needed if current efforts to combat the ISIL fail.
There have been at least 190 US airstrikes on ISIL targets in Iraq since bombing started there in August, according to statistics from US Central Command, which coordinates military activity in the region.
Since September 22, the US and its allies have been also conducting airstrikes against the ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The airstrikes are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against ISIL positions in Iraq.
The ISIL terrorists currently control large swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq. They have carried out heinous atrocities in both countries, including mass executions and beheadings of people.
MP/AB/SS
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