Zarif in Baghdad, Zebari Urges Global Help in Fight against ’IS’ Terrorists

Local Editor

Iraq called Sunday for global support for its fight against terrorists, as Iran said it was helping Baghdad resist the militants but not with soldiers on the ground.

Iraq is struggling to regain significant parts of the country after a lightning militant offensive led by the so-called "Islamic State" [IS] group seized second city Mosul in June.

The extremist fighters have been bombarded since August 8 by US air strikes in northern Iraq, allowing Kurdish peshmerga security forces to claw back a limited amount of lost territory, including the Qaraj area, which they retook on Sunday.

"We launched an attack this morning on positions of [IS] gunmen" in the Qaraj area southeast of Mosul, forcing the militants out after two hours of fighting, peshmerga Staff Colonel Salim al-Sorchi said.

Iraqi security forces also on Sunday repelled a renewed militant assault on the Baiji oil refinery, the country's largest, a police officer and witnesses said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Sunday urged greater support from the international community.

Iraq "needs help and support from everybody... all the forces against terrorism," but not in the form of troops, as "there is no shortage of fighting men," Zebari said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif in Baghdad.

Zarif, on a two-day visit to Baghdad, for his part said Iran is working with Iraq, and also called for a broad effort against "IS".

"We are cooperating and working... with the Iraqi government and with the Kurdish government in order to repel this very serious, atrocious group," Zarif said.

It is "committing acts of horrendous genocide and crimes against humanity" and "needs to be tackled by the international community and by every country in the region," he said.

"But we do not believe that they need the presence of Iranian soldiers in order to do this task," he said.

Prime minister-designate Haidar al-Abadi, urged "citizens to close ranks to deny the opportunity to the enemies of Iraq who are trying to provoke strife."

Iraq was hit by violence on Sunday, with bombings in two areas of Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 people, among them five Kurdish security forces members.

The United Nations, meanwhile, warned that the Shiite Turkmen-majority northern Iraqi town of Amerli is under threat of a "massacre" by "IS" who have besieged it for more than two months.

"The situation of the people in Amerli is desperate and demands immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens," U.N. Iraq envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

Abadi and Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani, both also called for efforts to help Amerli.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team