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Coalition making headway, but says hard part lies ahead

The United States and its allies have sought to put a good face on the coalition’s deliberate campaign to roll back the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, boasting of having killed thousands of militants while acknowledging that ousting the group from key cities remains a distant aspiration.

The United States and its allies have sought to put a good face on the coalition’s deliberate campaign to roll back the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, boasting of having killed thousands of militants while acknowledging that ousting the group from key cities remains a distant aspiration.

Speaking to reporters in London alongside the British Foreign Minister and Iraqi Prime Minister on Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said nearly 2,000 air strikes had arrested the Islamic State group’s momentum, squeezed its finances, killed thousands of fighters and eliminated half of the group’s leadership.

Iraqi ground troops had retaken 700 sq km of territory and deprived the militants of the use of 200 oil and gas facilities, he added, after a meeting of 21 anti-Islamic State coalition partners in Europe, Australia, Canada and several Persian Gulf nations.

However, Mr Kerry acknowledged that the international coalition can do better at slowing the flow of foreign recruits, curbing the militant group’s fundraising and challenging its extremist ideas, which have seized the imagination of Islamic radicals in Europe, including the gunman who killed four hostages at a kosher grocery in Paris this month.

British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said the coalition hoped to defeat both the Islamic State and its ideology “however long it takes and wherever it leads us”.

But the leaders gave few details of new commitments of arms, troops or money for the effort. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi raised another problem looming for Iraq: Falling oil prices, which he said had been disastrous for Iraq’s budget.

Mr Hammond assured him that would not happen. “This campaign is not going to fail for the want of some guns or some bullets in the hands of the Iraqi security forces,” he said.

Mr Kerry also said the US and its allies were training Iraqi forces as fast as possible, with a goal of creating 12 new Iraqi brigades. Iraq was also receiving equipment, including 250 mine-resistant armoured vehicles and a “very significant number” of M16 assault rifles, he said. AP

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