US-led coalition to ramp up help for anti-IS fight

An international coalition leading the military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has agreed to accelerate its contributions but did not publicly specify what those would be.

The group also calls on Iraqi leaders to reconcile political differences.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his counterparts from 11 coalition countries met behind closed doors at the headquarters of US European Command.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the group reaffirms its support “to further accelerate and reinforce the success of our partners on the ground and for the deployment of additional enabling capabilities in the near term.”

“We called on all of Iraq’s political leaders to commit themselves to the legal and peaceful reconciliation of political differences in order to confront the nation’s challenges and to remain united against the common enemy,” they say.

The statement is not specific about what additional contributions would be offered, beyond citing resources to support the Iraqi military campaign and “various forms” of help to a civilian effort to stabilize and reconstruct areas of Anbar province devastated by war damage.

A day after a US Navy SEAL was killed in small arms fire with IS forces, Carter says that as the war intensifies, “these risks will continue.”

“Our overall approach is to enable local forces to do the fighting … but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to do any fighting at all,” Carter says. “We are putting these people are risk every day,” including the aircrews who are flying strike missions daily over Iraq and Syria, “and, tragically, losses will occur,” he adds.

— AP