The Kurds might be the ones to stop the ISIS gang in Iraq if they have the weaponry to do so.
Kurdish pleas for weapons may finally be heard
As Islamic State forces advance in northern Iraq, Obama administration weighs selling ethnic minority arms
BY KEN DILANIAN August 9, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) For years, Kurdish officials have beseeched the Obama administration to let them buy US weapons. And for just as long, the administration has rebuffed the Kurds, Americas closest allies in Iraq.
US officials insisted they could only sell arms to the government in Baghdad, even after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke a written promise to deliver some of them to the Kurds, whose peaceful, semi-autonomous northern region had been the lone success story to come out of the 2003 US invasion.
Now, the administration is confronting the consequences of that policy. The Islamic State group, which some American officials have dubbed a terrorist army, overpowered lightly armed Kurdish units in a blitzkrieg that has threatened the Kurdish region and the American personnel stationed there.
In June, the Pentagon dispatched 300 military advisers to Iraq. Dozens of them are operating out of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, which is now under threat from the Islamic State.
The US sought to halt the extremists advance Friday with airstrikes, but Kurdish officials also say Washington has promised to begin sending them arms. Pentagon officials say their policy hasnt changed they will only sell arms to Baghdad.
Read more:
Kurdish pleas for weapons may finally be heard | The Times of Israel
Kurdish pleas for weapons may finally be heard
As Islamic State forces advance in northern Iraq, Obama administration weighs selling ethnic minority arms
BY KEN DILANIAN August 9, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) For years, Kurdish officials have beseeched the Obama administration to let them buy US weapons. And for just as long, the administration has rebuffed the Kurds, Americas closest allies in Iraq.
US officials insisted they could only sell arms to the government in Baghdad, even after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke a written promise to deliver some of them to the Kurds, whose peaceful, semi-autonomous northern region had been the lone success story to come out of the 2003 US invasion.
Now, the administration is confronting the consequences of that policy. The Islamic State group, which some American officials have dubbed a terrorist army, overpowered lightly armed Kurdish units in a blitzkrieg that has threatened the Kurdish region and the American personnel stationed there.
In June, the Pentagon dispatched 300 military advisers to Iraq. Dozens of them are operating out of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, which is now under threat from the Islamic State.
The US sought to halt the extremists advance Friday with airstrikes, but Kurdish officials also say Washington has promised to begin sending them arms. Pentagon officials say their policy hasnt changed they will only sell arms to Baghdad.
Read more:
Kurdish pleas for weapons may finally be heard | The Times of Israel
