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Iraq urges world to fight Islamic State

PARIS — Iraqi President Fuad Masum has urged world powers to take the fight against the Islamic State militants who have occupied much of his country to neighbouring Syria, as France yesterday became the second country to commit its military forces to the United States-led coalition campaign against the group.

(Top from left) Jordanian Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad; Foreign Minister of United Arab Emirates Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan; unidentified; Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo; Norwegian Foreign Borge Brendem;  (Front row from left) Iraqi President Fuad Masum; French President Francois Hollande; French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius; US Secretary of State John Kerry; and Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini  prepare to walk away after a group photo at the French Foreign ministry in Paris on Monday Sept 15, 2014, prior to a meeting on the Islamic State group. Diplomats from around the world are in Paris pressing for a coherent global strategy to combat extremists from the Islamic State group. Photo: AP

(Top from left) Jordanian Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad; Foreign Minister of United Arab Emirates Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan; unidentified; Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo; Norwegian Foreign Borge Brendem; (Front row from left) Iraqi President Fuad Masum; French President Francois Hollande; French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius; US Secretary of State John Kerry; and Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini prepare to walk away after a group photo at the French Foreign ministry in Paris on Monday Sept 15, 2014, prior to a meeting on the Islamic State group. Diplomats from around the world are in Paris pressing for a coherent global strategy to combat extremists from the Islamic State group. Photo: AP

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PARIS — Iraqi President Fuad Masum has urged world powers to take the fight against the Islamic State militants who have occupied much of his country to neighbouring Syria, as France yesterday became the second country to commit its military forces to the United States-led coalition campaign against the group.

As the coalition grows by the day, France yesterday followed a move by Australia on Sunday to pledge troops and aircraft to the campaign, sending reconnaissance flights over Iraq from a French base in the United Arab Emirates, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced. US officials have said more than 40 countries have committed to military and non-military action as part of the coalition it is putting together.

“We must not allow them to have sanctuaries,” Mr Masum said at the start of the international conference in Paris to help Iraq respond to the threat posed by the Islamic State.

Mr Masum’s appeal for broader military action against the Islamic State was not a new one, although it was significant as it was made in a gathering of 26 nations plus representatives of the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League.

US officials have made it clear they want to have active military support from Middle Eastern states and do not want the coalition’s efforts against the group to be reminiscent of the Iraq war in 2003 so as to avoid the appearance of waging a Western crusade.

“This isn’t going to be ‘shock and awe’ with hundreds of air strikes,” one official said, referring to the initial attack on Baghdad at the opening of the Iraq war. “We don’t want this to look like an American war.”

Topping the list of Arab states likely to take the lead in possible air strikes are the United Arab Emirates, which provided some air power in the 2011 attacks on Libya, and Qatar, which hosts an American military headquarters. American officials have cautioned that all strikes would have to be approved by the newly-assembled government in Iraq, as well as by American military planners.

That could prove only one challenge to the offer by Arab nations to participate in air strikes. While Iraq’s struggling military forces have experience operating with the United States, its Shia-dominated government has never worked with the Sunni states of the Persian gulf.

Later yesterday, the more than a dozen nations that participated in the international conference issued a statement pledging their support for the new Iraqi government, including in providing military assistance.

“They committed to supporting the new Iraqi government in its fight against the group, including appropriate military assistance,” the statement said. It added that the aid would be “in accordance with international law and without jeopardising civilian security”.

French President Francois Hollande, who opened the session, said the militant group represented a global danger and urged the international community to help Iraq.

“The Iraqis’ fight against terrorists is also ours,” Mr Hollande said. “There is no time to lose.” In recent weeks, the US has focused its air strikes inside Iraq, defending the northern city of Erbil, securing the Mosul dam and protecting the Haditha dam. But Iraq’s new Prime Minister Haider Abadi has asked Washington to take action on the Syrian side of the border to deprive the group of the havens it enjoys there.

However, no fresh pledges of military aid were announced at the conference yesterday and the statement did not commit any of the nations to take military action inside Syria amid hesitancy among countries, including from France. France has said it is ready to join the US air strikes in Iraq, but says legal and military limitations make it more difficult in Syria, where the Islamic State’s main power base lies. Agencies

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