Iraq’s leader faced mounting criticism yesterday for his Shiite-led government’s failure to do more to woo the Sunni Arab minority, as US President Barack Obama promised military advisers, but no immediate air strikes.
Top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, revered among Iraq’s majority community, warned that time was running out to expel the jihadists, who have spearheaded the offensive that has seen Sunni Arab militants seize a vast swath of northern and north-central Iraq.
Obama, who based an election campaign on ending US involvement in Iraq, insisted that the US was not slipping back into the morass, and told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Shiite ally Iran that promoting sectarianism would spell disaster.
Photo: Reuters
Tehran hit back, saying that Obama lacked a “serious will” to fight terrorism after he left unheeded a request from Baghdad for US air strikes against the militants.
The assault, led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, but also involving loyalists of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, has further threatened Washington’s already damaged legacy in Iraq.
“Going forward, we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it,” Obama said on Thursday, as he announced the offer of up to 300 military advisers.
The offer was the most concrete action announced by Washington since the crisis erupted on June 9, but fell short of Iraq’s request for air strikes and drew derision from Iran, which had offered its cooperation despite decades of enmity.
“Delaying the fight against terrorism and ISIL and putting conditions on it have fueled suspicions and doubts about the United States’ objectives in Iraq,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said. “Obama’s comments show the White House lacks serious will in fighting terrorism in Iraq and the region.”
Top cleric al-Sistani called for Iraqis to band together against the jihadists before it is too late.
If ISIL is not “fought and expelled from Iraq, everyone will regret it tomorrow, when regret has no meaning,” his spokesman said on his behalf.
The battle for the strategic northern town of Tal Afar entered its sixth day yesterday, with witnesses saying security forces clashed with militants, who still hold significant ground.
Shiite-majority Tal Afar is along a strategic corridor to Syria, and is the largest town not to fall to militants in the northern province of Nineveh, most of which has been overrun.
The crew of an Iraqi gunship apparently mistook a police patrol for militants early yesterday in the town of Dhuluiyah, north of the capital, opening fire and killing a woman, officials and a witness said.
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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