LATEST UPDATE:
U.S. sending weapons directly to Kurdish forces, officials say(BAGHDAD, Iraq)
The U.S. government has begun to funnel weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting Islamist militants in northern Iraq, deepening U.S. involvement in a conflict that the Obama administration had long sought to avoid.
The arms pipeline, which one former U.S. military official described as a trickle, opened in recent days as the Kurds’ pesh merga fighters have struggled to stem advances by Islamic State forces that have swept across northern Iraq.
The weapons are being supplied by the CIA, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Obama administration has not publicly acknowledged the spy agency’s involvement.
“They need everything, especially heavy weapons,” said the former U.S. official, who is working closely with Kurdish leaders. While arms have started flowing to Kurdish forces near the city of Irbil, the official said Kurds in the vicinity of the key city of Sulaymaniyah have yet to receive any U.S. support.
The U.S. military has conducted a handful of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in recent days, but Kurdish leaders have complained that they are outgunned and unable to mount a counter-offensive without more American assistance.
The U.S. government has previously sold billions of dollars of weapons to the government of Iraq. Many of those American-supplied arms ended up in the hands of Islamic State fighters as they routed Iraqi army units across the country last month.
American officials have tried to expedite the transfer of arms from the government in Baghdad to Kurdish fighters in the north, but that process has gone slowly, prompting Washington to open a direct pipeline to the Kurds. The CIA declined to comment.
A U.S. military official said the Pentagon and State Department were discussing other possible ways to deliver weapons to the Kurds via open channels, but that they would need special legal authorization. Normally U.S. arms sales are restricted to sovereign or central governments.
The U.S. military began launching airstrikes against Islamic State targets on Friday after President Obama ordered the Pentagon to intervene on behalf of the Kurds and other Iraqis who have suffered at the hands of the militants. Islamic State traces its origins to the group al-Qaeda in Iraq and has a similar jihadist ideology.
The U.S. airstrikes have been limited in nature and intended to prevent Islamic State fighters from gaining more ground near the city of Irbil or from advancing on Mount Sinjar, where thousands of members of the minority Yazidi faith have sought refuge.
The latest strikes occurred late Sunday, when U.S. fighter aircraft attacked and destroyed several vehicles in an Islamic State convoy near Irbil, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
(Washington Post)
The post U.S. sending weapons directly to Kurdish forces, officials say appeared first on The Sun News.
from http://ift.tt/I8U8zQ
Thanks for Reading The LATEST UPDATE:
U.S. sending weapons directly to Kurdish forces, officials saySHARE WITH FRIENDS
