BAGHDAD (AP) — The United States is pledging to stand by Iraq as its new leaders plead for help in facing down the Islamic State insurgency.
Secretary of State John Kerry offered the assurances during a daylong visit to Baghdad on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepares to outline his strategy for defeating the Islamic State group that has overrun swaths of northern Iraq and Syria.
Kerry says it’s “a fight that the Iraqi people must win” and “a fight that the rest of the world needs to win with them.”
A coalition of nearly 40 nations already has committed to contribute to what Kerry predicts will be a worldwide fight to defeat the Islamic State, which has surpassed even al-Qaida in its ruthlessness to impose extremist laws in a caliphate it wants to carve out of the Mideast.
%@AP Links
APPHOTO CAITH107: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looks out from a helicopter over Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Kerry is traveling to the Mideast this week to discuss ways to bolster the stability of the new Iraqi government and combat the Islamic State militant group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool) (10 Sep 2014)
<
APPHOTO CAITH110: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after a meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. Kerry is traveling to the mideast this week to discuss ways to bolster the stability of the new Iraqi government and combat the Islamic State militant group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool) (10 Sep 2014)
< Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
