President Obama Pledges $200 Million in Aid to Iraq During Abadi Visit

Obama Pledges $200 Million
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) makes remarks as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi listens after a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, April 14, 2015, in Washington, DC. The leaders discussed the strategic partnership between the two countries, support in fighting the Islamic State as well as commercial and cultural relations. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

 

President Obama Pledges $200 Million in Aid to Iraq During Abadi Visit

 

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) makes remarks as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi listens after a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, April 14, 2015, in Washington, DC. The leaders discussed the strategic partnership between the two countries, support in fighting the Islamic State as well as commercial and cultural relations. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) makes remarks as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi listens after a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, April 14, 2015, in Washington, DC. The leaders discussed the strategic partnership between the two countries, support in fighting the Islamic State as well as commercial and cultural relations. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo

 

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2015 (UPI) — The United States will provide $200 million in humanitarian aid for Iraq, President Obama announced after meeting with the country’s prime minister Tuesday.

There was no mention of additional military assistance or weaponry, which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had been expected to request during his first trip to Washington since becoming prime minister of Iraq seven months ago.

Meeting in the Oval Office, the two leaders discussed strategic partnerships in operations against the Islamic State.

Last summer the Sunni militant group seized vast amounts of territory in Iraq’s west and north. The United States has since led an international bombing campaign against the group and has provided military assistance in support of Kurdish forces as well as the Iraqi military, which previously retreated in the face of a numerically inferior IS force attacking Mosul.

Following the meeting, President Obama stressed the United States’ obligation to help civilians being displaced in the fighting.

“This is not just an abstract issue,” USA Today quoted the president as saying. “There are individual families and children who have suffered.”

The president also asserted that any military assistance from Iran — which has been training and providing support for Shia militias fighting IS forces — should go through the Baghdad government.

Shia militias, along with U.S. air power, were instrumental in the Iraqi military’s recent re-capture of Tikrit, but Baghdad pulled out the Iranian-backed militias after widespread reports of looting, arson and unlawful executions.

A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that IS forces have lost 25 percent to 30 percent of their Iraqi territory — comprising between 5,000 and 6,000 square miles — due to “the combination of coalition air power and Iraqi ground forces” affecting the group’s “ability to hold territory and to have freedom of maneuver.”

Still, the group is estimated to still hold nearly one-third of Iraq.

Also on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a force of 330 Australian troops and 100 New Zealand military personnel would be sent in May to conduct a two-year mission training Iraqi forces north of Baghdad.

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