Anti-IS drive: US pledges continued support

BAGHDAD: US Vice-President Mike Pence on Saturday assured Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi of continued US support to defeat IS, the Iraqi government said in a statement.

The two discussed the situation in Syria and the war on IS in a phone call from Pence following Friday’s US strikes on a Syrian airbase.

Pence “affirmed that US policy in the region didn’t change, its priority is to defeat Daesh in Iraq and the region,” said a statement from Abadi’s office.

The Iraqi government issued a statement on Friday in reaction to the events in Syria reflecting a difficult balancing act between its alliance with the United States and with Iran. The Iraqi statement condemned

chemical attack, without the naming Assad, calling instead for an international investigation to identify the perpetrator. The statement also criticised “the hasty interventions” that followed the chemical attack, in an apparent reference to the US strikes.

A US-led coalition has been providing air and ground support to Iraqi forces battling the militants, allowing them to recapture most cities they had overran in 2014 in the areas of northern and western Iraq.

An Iraqi militia said on Friday it would keep on fighting in Syria in support of Assad, despite the US missile strikes.

Meanwhile, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr on Saturday called on Syrian President Bashar al Assad to step down, also calling on Washington and Moscow to stop intervening in the conflict.

— AFP Displaced Iraqis who fled Mosul’s Old City receive food as they arrive in the Al Tayaran neighbourhood on Saturday during an offensive by government forces to retake the western part of the city from IS group fighters.