Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
US WARPLANES CARRIED out their first air strike on the Islamic State near Baghdad, as world diplomats pledged to support Iraq in its fight against the militants.
The United States early last month began air strikes against IS positions in northern Iraq, but Monday’s announcement that the campaign had targeted the jihadists near the Iraqi capital marks an escalation in the scope of the mission.
It comes less than a week after US President Barack Obama, in a primetime television address to the nation, ordered a “relentless” war against the Islamic State, including air strikes in Syria and expanded operations in Iraq to “destroy” the marauding jihadist army.
“US military forces continued to attack ISIL (IS) terrorists in Iraq, employing attack and fighter aircraft to conduct two air strikes Sunday and Monday in support of Iraqi security forces near Sinjar and southwest of Baghdad,” US Central Command said in a statement.
“The air strike southwest of Baghdad was the first strike taken as part of our expanded efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions to hit ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense, as outlined in the president’s speech last Wednesday.”
The strikes destroyed six IS vehicles near Sinjar and an IS fighting position southwest of Baghdad that had been firing on Iraqi forces.
They bring the number of US air strikes across Iraq to 162.
Any means
It came as representatives from about 30 countries and international organisations, including the United States, Russia and China, met in Paris to discuss the crisis triggered when IS overran large areas of Iraq and Syria, carrying out beheadings and forced religious conversions.
The savage beheading at the weekend of a Briton, the third Western hostage to be executed on camera, raised the stakes in the battle against the jihadists, who have declared a caliphate and have as many as 31,500 fighters, according to the CIA.
In a joint statement, diplomats vowed to support Baghdad “by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance, in line with the needs expressed by the Iraqi authorities, in accordance with international law and without jeopardising civilian security.”
They stressed that IS extremists were “a threat not only to Iraq but also to the entire international community” and underscored the “urgent need” to remove them from Iraq, where they control some 40 percent of the territory.
The Paris statement made no mention of Syria, where extremists hold a quarter of the country and where Bashar al-Assad’s regime still had friends around the Paris conference table, including Russia.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, attending the talks, stressed again that “we’re not going to coordinate with the Syrians.”
However he added that Obama had made it clear that “he will hunt down ISIL (Islamic State) wherever they may be, and that includes Syria.”
Another senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that US forces will target Syrian anti-aircraft systems if they take aim at American planes conducting strikes inside Syria against Islamic State rebels.
No time to lose
On the ground in Iraq, sporadic clashes broke out near the town of Dhuluiyah, north of Baghdad, where security forces and allied tribesmen prepared for an operation against IS-led militants.
The area would appear to be the target of the next major drive against IS in Iraq, after a successful operation to break the siege of the town of Amerli farther north.
As if to stress the urgency of the campaign against IS, France’s defence minister announced just hours ahead of the conference that Paris was joining Britain in carrying out reconnaissance flights in support of the ongoing US air campaign.
Shortly afterwards, two French Rafale fighter jets took off from the Al-Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates.
And in Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged military action, calling IS “a group of terrorists with whom there is no chance whatsoever to negotiate.”
The Paris meeting was the latest in a series of frantic diplomatic efforts to build a broad global coalition against the jihadists, and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said meetings would come “thick and fast” ahead of a UN general assembly next week.
Ten Arab states including Saudi Arabia are among the countries backing the US-led coalition, and Australia has pledged 600 troops.
“We are not building a military coalition for an invasion… but for a transformation as well as for the elimination of ISIL,” Kerry told reporters, using an alternative name for IS.
“We are fighting an ideology, not a regime.”
However, Iran, which was not invited to the conference, said it had rejected US overtures to help in the fight against the militants.
Iran, like Iraq, is majority Shiite, while IS is made up of Sunni fighters who target Shiite Muslims.
196 representations by Charlie Flanagan alone? Doesn’t sound suspicious at all.
@Dj: He was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade…
@Dj: obviously has the dumbest or laziest constituents whom can’t read an application forms criteria.
@iohanx: must be the which minister can you bring section!
They wouldn’t have to if the passport office would actually answer the phone and respond to email. I can understand that they’re understaffed but ignoring queries means more incomplete applications that must be sent back and time wasted.
We are not looking for any favourtism
then what else?
@steve white: this is a mainly about dumb people whom don’t plan when they want to travel. There are always emergencies, but there will always be dopes looking for assists
They probably work on a first come first serve basis so dealing with politicians requests just slows up the process for everyone else.
I sent my sons passport in at the start of April for a trip in oct . I sent it through passport express. Plenty of time . An unscheduled trip for family to the UK came up . The passport was gone six weeks and no one from the passport office could be contacted via email webchat or phone . I got on via webchat waiting for hours each time and they wouldn’t help , the last time I was told unless someone was dead with evidence my 3 year olds son passport wouldn’t be done .so I asked for help out of pure desperation . I got it with hours to spare . The passport office are v difficult to deal with .
Has John Waters got his passport yet?
@Larry Doyle: I think that gobsh*te had already made plans to move to Spain. Just an attention seeker!
And one was for me, so I could get a valid passport back that I send in to support an application, forgetting I was travelling, the staff were no help at all sent in 10 emails to no reply, calls on hold for upto an hour. Shocking customer support.
Such representations mean pure chronism and should be made explicitly illegal. Naming and shamimg is useful in the meantime though.
The Fine Gael and the Fianna Fáil boyos seem to have gone nuts on them altogether
Shouldn’t this be shifted to local councillors instead? And isn’t there an actual fast track system where you pay a bit more for the faster turn around?
@Oisín O’Connor:
I completed my application for a new passport on line and it was a 4 day turn around and i didnt have any need to contact my local TD’s thankfully
@RobbieL: ssshh! You’ll spoil the importance of TDS and Senators. Their public profile will disappear altogether if people look after their own affairs.
@RobbieL: yeah sure you did
Why would anyone want a passport to leave Ireland?
Funny how the 3,500 recently new “Irish Citizens” had no problem getting their passports, all had them to hand on the day to parade in front of the camera’s.
We need another two or three physical passport offices , in Galway & Sligo as examples. Also, automated renewals with pre scanned photos, renewal reminder notices automatically sent out by email, and arguably 15 year passports also ( I’ve not aged in 15 years at any rate…). Or add it to the functions of local government, arguably, despite their flaws.
The only reason FF/FG did so well in workingclass areas was promising medical cards for them. something they were entitled already.
Helping nobody has now been turned into a virtue by our new spiritual guides, media busybodies ?
that is how they get the votes that re-elect them….. it is a micro version of “stroke” politics whether it be passports or getting a pedestrian crossing or a street light or 1001 other things it is a “game” played to make it appear that your friendly TD has done you a favour….
There is a place for TDs and other elected officials to follow through on issues that affect constituents but there has to be a balance… and in this case maybe the people waiting for passports did have issues that needed speeding up over the longer waiting lists… who knows for sure
That’s all they are good for.
have your say