The Iraqi army, riven by sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, put up little resistance earlier this year as the Islamic State fighters mounted a major offensive.
Hollande pointed to the peshmerga fighters from Iraq's northern Kurd region, who have had recent success against the Islamic State and who on Monday helped bombard Islamic State positions in the northern Syrian town of Kobani.
Western nations have been training and equipping the peshmerga for months.
[jpost.com by Reuters]
3/11/14
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France says anti-IS coalition must turn attention to Aleppo ....
ReplyDeleteThe coalition fighting Islamic State must now save Syria's second city Aleppo as moderate rebels face destruction by attacks from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and jihadi militants, France's foreign minister said.
In a column in French daily Le Figaro, The Washington Post and pan-Arab Al-Hayat, Laurent Fabius said the city, the "bastion" of the opposition, was almost encircled and abandoning it would end hopes of a political solution in Syria's three-year civil war................http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/France-says-anti-IS-coalition-must-turn-attention-to-Aleppo-380712
4/11/14
French FM urges anti-ISIS coalition to ‘save’ Syria’s Aleppo from Assad, jihadists ...
ReplyDeleteThe next target after Kobani for the anti-ISIS efforts should be Aleppo, the stronghold of Syria’s moderate opposition, France’s FM Laurent Fabius writes. In his view, the city is under threat from ISIS jihadists defeated in Iraq and Assad’s troops.
Laurent Fabius’ column published simultaneously in The Washington Post, Le Figaro and pan-Arab media outlet Al-Hayat maintains that if Aleppo falls, the last hope for political solution of the Syrian crisis will be lost indefinitely.
“It would condemn Syria to years of violence. It would be the death of any political perspective and would see the fragmentation of the country run by increasingly radicalized warlords. It would also export the internal chaos of Syria towards already fragile neighbors Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan,” Fabius wrote.
Aleppo was won by the Syrian opposition in 2012 and ever since has remained a major battleground for the Free Syrian Army fighters and governmental troops loyal to President Bashar Assad..................http://rt.com/news/202107-france-fabius-aleppo-assault/
4/11/14