CHICAGO, USA - President Barack Obama returned to the White House from vacation on Monday for a briefing on boosting military support to Iraqi and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq in a potential escalation of the war against Islamic State (IS/ISIS) militants.
Obama was set to address the media on Monday afternoon, as US airstrikes backed Kurdish and Iraqi national forces as they regained at least partial control of Mosul dam from IS, which has won swathes of Syria and Iraq and imposed a caliphate on the region.
Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said Security Council members discussed US airstrikes and European humanitarian airdrops in Iraq on Monday, days after the 15-nation body slapped sanctions on Islamists and threatened to do the same to their financial backers overseas.
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron ruled out “putting boots on the ground” in Iraq but promised continued aid to IS victims – including the minority Yezidis and Christians who have borne the brunt of the group’s holy violence.
Obama’s decision-making over greater military support for Iraq’s government or the autonomous Kurdish zone is expected to reflect US public opinion, which broadly supports the limited airstrikes, according to Monday’s study by the Pew Research Center.
Some 54 per cent of Americans say they approve of airstrikes against IS militants, and 31 per cent disapprove. While the public backs intervention, there is also there is concern (51 per cent) that the US will become too deeply involved in the war.
Meanwhile, Kurdish-American activists continued pressing Obama for tougher action in support of autonomous northern Kurdish zones, which campaigners say could become Washington’s strongest ally in a turbulent region.
“We thank the US and other countries in the world for their support of Kurdish Yezidis, Christian and other minority groups who have been traumatized by the Islamic State takeover,” Yuksel Serindag, a member of the Kurdish American Society, which rallied 40 protesters in New York City on Sunday, told Rudaw.
“We also asked the US government to continue its support for the Kurdish Regional Government to stop the advance of the IS and its indescribable brutality toward these ancient communities,” Serindag said.
“We also ask the US to recognize an independent Kurdish state in Iraq, for only in an independent Kurdish state can these communities live free without fear."
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