Al Maliki says Syrian aircraft has attacked border

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has said on Thursday that the Syrian regime has carried out air strikes on the Iraqi border  “on the Syrian side.” The attack, which was directed against the positions of the militias of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), was near the town of Qaim, near the border between the two countries. Although the Iraqi government had not requested military support from the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Al Maliki “celebrates” the attacks against Sunni terrorist group. The British Foreign Secretary William Hague has arrived in Iraq on Thursday where he met with several leaders to address the threat ISIL, according to British diplomatic sources.

On Thursday, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, has arrived in Kirkuk. It is a city for its strategic oil reserves. It is the first visit since the Kurdish security force controlled town.

This new attack comes two days after ISIL insurgents took control of Al Qaim border post, making it easy to transit to Syria, a territory where the terror group is very active.

Moreover, according to a statement from the British Government, Hague offered to provide “diplomatic, humanitarian and counter-terrorism support” and stressed that Britain has already sent emergency aid of five million pounds to Iraq. In his statement to the BBC, Al Maliki said Iraq has also decided to buy Russian fighters, which will arrive in the country within a few days, due to the delay in sale of U.S. F16 aircraft. ” The first thing to do is military operations against terrorists and the second is to initiate a political process begins with a meeting in Parliament and choose the leaders of both the House of Representatives as the new government, ” al-Maliki said in his meeting with Hague.

Since December 2013, the ISIL has become a threat to the government of Nuri Al-Maliki  who, despite international pressure led by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, has rejected the formation of an emergency unity government including Kurds and Sunni representatives.

Since the ISIL began taking hold of strategic cities like Mosul, Baiji, Tikrit, or Fallujah  almost one million people have had to leave their homes and some 1,000 have been killed in fighting between rebels and the army, according to the UN.

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Posted by Jamshed Sindhu on Jun 26 2014. Filed under Latest News, Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.