First U.S. Military Advisers Deploy in Iraq, Kerry Urges Unity as Troops Battle Militant Assault
Iraqi air strikes killed at least 38 people on Tuesday as security forces held off attacks on a strategic town and an oil refinery, as Washington said the first batch of U.S. military advisers has arrived in Baghdad.
In the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, morning air strikes killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 17, officials said, while further raids in the evening killed six more.
The officials said the dead and wounded were civilians, and it was unclear if there were any casualties among the militants who were the target of the strikes.
State television said 19 "terrorists" were killed in the earlier set of Baiji raids.
In the Husseibah area of Anbar province, west of Baghdad, another air strike killed seven militants and six civilians, witnesses said.
Elsewhere in Anbar, security forces and allied tribesmen held off an assault on the strategic town of Haditha, located on the road to provincial capital Ramadi, a police officer said.
Militants also launched a renewed push to seize Iraq's largest oil refinery, which is located near Baiji, but the overnight attack was repelled by security forces, officials said.
The refinery, which filled some 50 percent of Iraq's demand for refined petroleum products in better days, has been the scene of heavy fighting since militants launched a major offensive on June 9, sending jitters through world oil markets.
The militants, led by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have overrun major areas of five provinces and driven to within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of Baghdad.
Security forces performed poorly during the initial onslaught, and are now struggling to hold their ground in the face of the relentless militant push.
Later on Tuesday, the Pentagon said the first teams of up to 300 U.S. military advisers have begun their mission in Baghdad to assist the Iraqi army in its fight against Sunni extremists.
Admiral John Kirby told reporters that "we have begun to deploy initial assessment teams" and two teams of about 40 troops "have started their new mission."
The first two teams were drawn from the U.S. embassy in Iraq, and an additional 90 troops had arrived to set up a joint operations center in Baghdad, Kirby said. Another 50 troops were due to deploy in the next few days, he added.
"These teams will assess the cohesiveness and readiness of Iraqi security forces, hire headquarters in Baghdad, and examine the most effective and efficient way to introduce follow-on advisers," he said.
The advisers would relay their findings to commanders within "the next two to three weeks."
Meanwhile, gunmen killed the city council chief of Iraq's ethnically divided northern oil hub of Kirkuk on Tuesday, a police commander and a doctor said.
Munir al-Qafili, a well-known and respected official, was shot dead on his way home in the east of the city.
Kirkuk lies at the heart of a swathe of disputed territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous region in the north.
Sunni Arab opposition to the claim has helped fan a spectacular offensive that has seen militants seize a large swathe of northern and north-central Iraq, include several mainly Sunni Arab towns in Kirkuk province.
Federal security forces withdrew in the face of the militant onslaught, allowing Kurdish troops to take control of Kirkuk city and other areas of the province.
Kirkuk has a diverse population with a significant Turkmen community as well as Kurds and Arabs.
Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the country's leaders to heal rifts in a crisis threatening to tear it apart.
Kerry's unannounced trip to Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region came a day after he pledged "intense" American support to Iraq to repel the insurgent advance.
The militant onslaught has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, alarmed world leaders, and put Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki under pressure at home and abroad.
After wilting in the face of the initial militant attack two weeks ago, Iraqi forces appear to be performing better, holding off major assaults at the Baiji oil refinery and the western town of Haditha.
Militants were able to overrun the strategic Shiite-majority northern town of Tal Afar and its airport after days of heavy fighting, and at the weekend, insurgents swept into Rawa and Ana towns in Anbar province west of Baghdad after taking the al-Qaim border crossing with Syria.
Kerry was in the Kurdish regional capital to urge president Massud Barzani to work to uphold Iraqi cohesion, telling him that "this is a very critical time for Iraq and the government formation challenge is the central challenge that we face."
Kurdish forces were "really critical in helping to draw a line with respect to ISIL," he added.
Barzani told Kerry that Kurds seek "a solution for the crisis that we have witnessed", but warned that it had created a "new reality and a new Iraq."
The militant offensive has cleared the way for Iraqi Kurds to take control of disputed territory they want to incorporate into their autonomous region over Baghdad's strong objections.
Speaking to CNN before Tuesday's talks, Barzani called for Maliki, whom he blamed "for what has happened" in Iraq, to step down.
Pressed on whether Iraqi Kurds would seek independence, Barzani said: "The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold."
In Baghdad on Monday, Kerry met Maliki and other leaders to urge the speedy formation of a government following April elections in order to face down the insurgents.
Washington's "support will be intense, sustained, and if Iraq's leaders take the necessary steps to bring the country together, it will be effective," Kerry said.
"This is a critical moment for Iraq's future."
Maliki told Kerry the crisis "represents a threat not only to Iraq but to regional and international peace".
U.S. leaders have stopped short of calling for Maliki to go, but there is little doubt they feel he has squandered the opportunity to rebuild Iraq since American troops withdrew in 2011.
President Barack Obama has offered to send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq, but has so far not backed air strikes as requested by Baghdad.
ISIL aims to create an Islamic state incorporating both Iraq and Syria, where it has become a major force in the rebellion against President Bashar Assad.
It has commandeered an enormous quantity of cash and resources because of the advance, bolstering coffers that were already the envy of militant groups worldwide.
In Brussels, a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from NATO countries begins Tuesday to discuss the situation in Iraq, as well as Ukraine.
Source: Agence France Presse
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