Iraqi leader asks US for more air power, weaponry

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday that his army is taking the offensive against the Islamic State group but needs more air power and heavy weaponry to prevail.

Hagel, who flew to Baghdad to get a first-hand report on progress against the Islamic State militants, was holding a series of meetings with top Iraqi government officials and conferring with American military commanders.

He met with al-Abadi at the prime minister’s office after making remarks to a group of U.S. and Australian soldiers at Baghdad International Airport.

Al-Abadi told Hagel as their meeting began that “Daesh (Islamic State) is on the descent at the moment.” He said their capabilities had been reduced.

“We are very thankful for the support that’s been given to us,” al-Abadi said. “Our forces are very much advancing on the ground. But they need more air power and more … heavy weaponry. We need that.”

U.S. officials assert that the Iraqis’ biggest need is competent military leadership, not additional military hardware.

The prime minister said the Islamic State had acquired extensive weaponry and remained able to move back and forth between Iraq and Syria. That contrasts with statements by U.S. commanders who say the militants’ ability to resupply their fighters in Iraq has been severely constrained by airstrikes.

In his remarks earlier to troops at the airport, Hagel said the U.S. wants to help Iraq regain the territory it lost to Islamic State militants earlier this year, but said the only lasting solution must come from the Iraqis themselves.

“Just as in Afghanistan, it is their country,” Hagel said. “They have to lead. They are the ones that are going to have to be responsible for end results.”

Hagel said the Baghdad government must bring the country together after disastrous years of sectarian division that undermined much of what the U.S. did to train Iraqi security forces.

“The inclusiveness of a government that all their people can join and be part of and have confidence in and trust in is going to be essential to their future,” he said.

On what is expected to be his last overseas trip as Pentagon chief, Hagel landed at the airport under tight security. He is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Iraq since Leon Panetta was here in December 2011 to mark the end of the U.S. military mission.

Hagel said Monday during a visit to Kuwait that he believes Iraq’s security forces have gained a new momentum, thanks in part to sustained U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State militants.

The U.S. is committed to helping Iraq roll back the territorial gains the militants made earlier this year, but President Barack Obama has ruled out sending American ground combat forces. He maintains that any lasting solution in Iraq can only be carried out by a newly unified Iraqi government.

At the peak of the war in Iraq the U.S. had about 170,000 troops in the country. When it pulled out, in December 2011, U.S. officials said they believed Iraq was on track to long-term stability. There are about 1,650 U.S. troops in Iraq now.

During his stop in Kuwait, Hagel said the Islamic State group remains a formidable threat, not only to Iraq but also to neighboring Iran and other countries in the region. He repeated the U.S. government’s policy of not coordinating military action in Iraq with Iran, but he also suggested that Iran has reason to be concerned about the long-term ambitions of the Islamic State.

“They are threatened by ISIL, just like every government in the Middle East is clearly threatened by ISIL,” Hagel said, using an alternative acronym for the extremist group.

U.S. officials said last week that Iran had recently conducted airstrikes in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala.

The top U.S. commander for the military campaign against Islamic State said in Kuwait on Monday that Islamic State fighters have lost the initiative in Iraq.

Lt. Gen. James Terry said the militants have far less ability to generate the kind of ground maneuvers that enabled them to capture large chunks of Iraq earlier this year.

Terry also said the nascent effort to rebuild Iraq’s army will soon get a boost from coalition countries that are to commit roughly 1,500 military trainers. Much of the Iraq army collapsed or proved ineffective in the face of the Islamic State’s onslaught last summer.

In his first extensive interview since taking command of the counter-militant campaign in October, Terry told a small group of reporters that the Islamic State is “on defense, trying to hold what they have gained.” He added that the group, which is armed with tanks and other U.S.-made war equipment captured from the Iraqi army, is “still able to conduct some limited attacks.”