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IS gains against Kurds

August 11, 2014

Fighters from the "Islamic State" group have defeated Kurdish forces in Iraq in a battle for the town of Jalawla. Several nations are discussing arming Iraq's Kurds to support their fight against IS militants.

https://p.dw.com/p/1CsTg
Ex-combatants of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who volunteered again to fight with Kurdish forces against the militants from the Islamic State, take up position near Khazer town near Mosul city, northern Iraq, 10 August 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

Security officials in Iraq confirmed Monday that the town of Jalawla, about 115 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad, had been captured by fighters belonging to the "Islamic State" group.

The seizure of Jalawla followed weeks of clashes between IS and the Kurdish peshmerga forces in the town, culminating in two days of fierce fighting which saw at least 10 Kurdish fighters killed and 80 wounded.

Kurdish forces moved in to Jalawla after Iraqi government troops fled in June under the threat of the rapid advance of IS, formerly known as "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), over large parts of northern Iraq. Jalawla is south of the Kurdish autonomous zone of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Weapons help

The Kurdish region's president Masoud Barzani has called on international allies to send weapons to help his forces in their fight against the IS group.

On Monday a US State Department official said the Iraqi Kurds were "being armed by various sources," though the official refused to name which countries were involved.

Asked if the United States was supplying weapons, the official replied that he "couldn't go into that," but that the Kurds were getting support "rapidly."

The US has already carried out airstrikes against IS in Iraq.

European aid?

In a letter to European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday called for the EU to respond to requests from Iraqi Kurds for weapons to fight the Islamist extremist group, the AFP news agency reports.

"It is crucial that the European Union mobilizes from today to respond to this appeal for help," Fabius said, his appeal echoing the sentiments of Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, who in a radio interview on Monday spoke about the possibility of Europe providing military support to the Kurdish region's government.

German authorities seem more reluctant, with government spokesman Steffen Siebert telling reporters the current government, like its predecessors, had a principle of not exporting arms to conflict or war zones.

"This is a principle we feel committed to upholding," Siebert said.

The "Islamic State" has taken over large areas of Iraq and Syria in the past two months, declaring a "caliphate" in the area under its control and threatening Iraq's political stability.

se/tj (AFP, Reuters, AP)