MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama’s strategy to defeat Islamic State [IS] militant group, which he will outline in a few hours, is about restructuring and retraining of the Iraqi army, US Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists on Wednesday.
He argued that the strategy will not involve direct US military assistance to Iraq, and highlighted that a package of “comprehensive” measures will be adopted, as a result of which Iraqi Army will be "reconstituted and trained and worked on in terms of a number of different strategies through the help not just of the United States, but of other countries also."
It remains unclear, how working with Iraqi army will be possible, given Kerry's earlier assertions that US troops will not return to Iraq.
In a few hours, Barack Obama is expected to make a primetime televised speech and outline a US strategy aimed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State jihadist group currently operating in Iraq and Syria.
Ahead of Obama's nationwide address, on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, John Kerry arrived in Baghdad to hold urgent talks with the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi. They reportedly discussed the ways in which the US can support the new Iraqi government in its effort to defeat the IS.
IS, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting alongside the other rebel groups against the government forces in the Syrian civil war, before launching an offensive in Iraq in June 2014.
Later in June, the group announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control, changed its name to the Islamic State and claimed religious authority over all Muslims globally.
