Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani asked the international community on Sunday to provide the Kurds with weapons to bolster their battle against ISIL militants.
Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani asked the international community on Sunday to provide the Kurds with weapons to bolster their battle against the militants of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also dubbed as ISIL, whose dramatic push through the north has alarmed Baghdad and Western countries.
Speaking at a press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Barzani said: "We are not fighting a terrorist organization, we are fighting a terrorist state."
Meanwhile, the United States' military has carried out a fourth wave of air strikes on ISIL militants near the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, according to U.S. officials in Iraq.
FA-18 fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on ISIL mobile artillery and fighters as they clashed with Peshmerga forces in an attempt to seize the Iraqi town of Mahur, they said.
An armored personnel carrier and artillery units were hit during the operation.
The attacks came after U.S. President Barack Obama authorized air strikes on Thursday in support of U.S. personnel in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil and forces in Iraq.
Security sources and a local official said the bodies of 16 extremists killed in Makhmur, where IS positions were bombed on Friday and fighting with Kurdish peshmerga also took place, had been buried nearby on Saturday.
But it remained unclear how much longer and how much deeper inside Iraq US warplanes would intervene, and Obama stressed the real game-changer would be the much-delayed formation of an inclusive government.
The US and UK have also dropped humanitarian aid supplies to thousands of Ezidi civilians stranded on Mount Sinjar after seeking refuge from ISIL militants.
Fabius was expected in Baghdad for talks with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari and Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani.
He will also oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians who have fled the advance of the Islamist fighters.
