Iraq PM under Fire as U.S. Mulls Air Strikes on Militants

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Top U.S. officials warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against "sectarian" policies as President Barack Obama Thursday weighed calls for air strikes on Sunni insurgents bearing down on Baghdad.

The sharp criticism of the embattled premier came as he scrambled to push back militants who have seized the country's second largest city Mosul and a swathe of territory north of Baghdad in an offensive that could threaten Iraq's very existence.

The swift advance of fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has sparked international alarm and a U.N. warning that the crisis was "life-threatening for Iraq".

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced in the nine days of fighting and an unknown number killed, while dozens of Indians and Turks have been kidnapped.

In a sign of what the Pentagon has described as Iraqi forces' "stiffening resistance", however, security forces regained full control of the country's main refinery after protracted clashes with insurgents.

Baghdad has formally requested that Washington launch air strikes on the advancing militants, but there were no signs U.S. military action was imminent.

Instead U.S. officials castigated Maliki, who is being blamed in Washington for causing Iraq to splinter after discriminating against the minority Sunni community.

Vice President Joe Biden drove home the U.S. message that Maliki needs to lead all Iraqis, not just Shiites.

He told Maliki in a telephone call that he must govern in an "inclusive manner, promote stability and unity among Iraq's population, and address the legitimate needs of Iraq's diverse communities," a White House statement said.

Former U.S. commander in Iraq David Petraeus urged reconciliation, warning at a conference in London that Washington risked becoming an "air force for Shiite militias" and supporting "one side of what could be a sectarian civil war".

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that Washington was seeking to help all Iraqis, not merely prop up Maliki.

"This is not about Maliki," Kerry told NBC in an interview. "Let me stress, what the United States is doing is about Iraq, it is not about Maliki."

Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier to the Gulf and sent military personnel to bolster security at its Baghdad embassy, but Obama insists a return to combat in Iraq is not on the cards.

The United States spent billions of dollars over several years training and arming Iraqi security forces after disbanding the Sunni-led army following the 2003 invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

But those forces wilted when faced with the militant offensive on June 9 which saw insurgents quickly capture Mosul, a city of some two million people, and then parts of Salaheddin, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces.

Some abandoned their vehicles and uniforms when faced with the insurgents.

The Sunni fighters have been led by the powerful ISIL, but also include a wide coalition of other Sunni Arab militant groups, including Saddam loyalists.

Though the alliance has made significant territorial gains, the wildly divergent ideologies of its constituent groups means it may fracture over time, analysts say.

While they struggled in the early part of the offensive, Iraq's security forces now appear to be performing better, managing to make advances in certain areas, though militants have made their own gains elsewhere.

In a sign of improving performance, security forces regained full control of the Baiji oil refinery in Salaheddin province on Thursday, officials and witnesses said.

The insurgent assault, which saw militants enter the complex, further spooked international oil markets, though officials and analysts said Iraq's vast oil exports were safe -- for now.

The Pentagon has noted that Iraqi forces were "stiffening their resistance" around Baghdad, while the increasingly open assistance from Shiite militia groups towards government soldiers and policemen has also played a major role.

State television reported that Iraqi counter-terrorism forces were deployed in the west of the city, which borders conflict-hit Anbar province, because of fears of "terrorist sleeper cells".

A vast number of volunteers who have joined the security forces in recent days, bolstered by a call to arms by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also began joining with soldiers and police en masse, with 6,000 being added to the army in Anbar alone.

Saudi Arabia has warned of the risks of a civil war in Iraq with unpredictable consequences for the region, while the United Arab Emirates recalled its envoy to Baghdad, voicing concern over "exclusionary and sectarian policies".

Later on Thursday, U.S. officials said Washington may deploy 100 special forces troops to advise the Iraqi army in its defense of Baghdad from Sunni extremists but not initially to call in air strikes.

Obama is "leaning" toward a limited course of action that would "embed" the commandos with Iraqi forces, one of the defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence France Presse.

A second official said the 100 troops would be capable of calling in air strikes if the administration later ordered that step.

The 100 troops would be in addition to the 275 forces that Obama has already mobilized to bolster security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the official said.

It was unclear how the White House would explain sending troops to advise the Iraqi army as Obama has vowed not to approve "boots on the ground" in Iraq -- three years after a large American force withdrew.

Obama's most senior security advisers met at the White House to discuss the potential deployment minutes before a scheduled announcement by the president on Iraq.

U.S. military officers also confirmed that F-18 fighter jets flying from the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in the Gulf were taking part in surveillance flights over Iraq.

The F-18 flights had taken place "over the past several days," said a military officer, who asked not to be named.

"We are flying both manned and unmanned ISR missions over Iraq," the officer said. 

The Pentagon had previously acknowledged that robotic drones had been providing intelligence to the Iraqi military and that Washington had expanded the number of planes involved in recent weeks following a request from Baghdad.

Comments 5
Thumb immortal 19 June 2014, 15:28

Moqtada al-Sadr: Maliki is a tyrant and a dictator who controls the funds, so he loots them and the cities, so he attacks them, and the sects, so he divides them. Feb 18, 2014

Thumb habib 19 June 2014, 16:34

Ya zolmat lmalki law ejo mala2ket dennyi kolla mala7 yonkozok ya wake3 mondon waki3iyya e7da 3ashar sana wa zolmat lmalki waki3iyya waka3at 3ala l3iraqiyyin wawaka3a l3iraq wak3atan moji3atan.natamanna lkhayir la sha3b l3iraqi

Thumb cedre 19 June 2014, 17:15

priorities, maliki doesnt care about iraqis and iraq...

Default-user-icon Hanoun (Guest) 19 June 2014, 17:26

the worst elected president or PM (democracy)is better than the best dictator or king or emir
god bless democracy

Missing .karim 19 June 2014, 20:10

Time to bomb the cannibal, heart-eating ISIS jihadist terrorists.