U.S. agencies providing arms to Kurd forces

WA SHINGTON • The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday, but the aid has so far been limited to automatic rifles and ammunition.

Previously, the U.S. sold arms in Iraq only to the government in Baghdad, some of which would be transferred to the Kurdish forces in the north. The Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to militants from the Islamic State of Iraq & AlSham (ISIS) in recent weeks, however.

The weapons appeared to be coming through intelligence agencies covertly and not through regular U.S. Defence Department channels.

The officials would not say which U.S. agency is providing the arms, but one official said it is not the Pentagon.

A Kurdish official said the weapons were coming from “U.S. intelligence agencies,” and a senior Pentagon official said the Defence Department may yet get involved. Historically, the Central Intelligence Agency has done similar quiet arming operations.

The move to directly aid the Kurds underscores the level of U.S. concern about the gains made by ISIS jihadists in the north, and reflects the persistent administration view the Iraqis must take the necessary steps to solve their own security problems.

To bolster that effort, the administration is also close to approving plans for the Pentagon to arm the Kurds, a senior official said.

In recent days, the U.S. military has been helping facilitate weapons deliveries from the Iraqis to the Kurds, providing logistical assistance and transportation to the north.

But the Kurdish government official said Monday the U.S. weapons being directly sent to Erbil, a northern Iraqi city where U.S. personnel are based and where ISIS militants are advancing on Kurdish forces, are limited in scope and number, and mostly consist of light arms like AK-47s and ammunition.

He said the American military aid is still not enough to battle the militants, even though the peshmerga and other Kurdish forces were supplemented with similar munitions from Baghdad over the weekend

The U.S. State Department sought to downplay the significance of the apparent shift in policy.

The militants have “obtained some heavy weaponry, and the Kurds need additional arms and we’re providing those — there’s nothing new here,” said Jen Psaki, a department spokeswoman.

The U.S. was working with Baghdad to speed up deliveries of “badly needed arms” to Kurdish forces in the north, she added. The Iraqi government “has made del iveries from its own stocks and we are working to do the same.”

The additional assistance comes as Kurdish forces Sunday took back two towns from the Islamic insurgents, aided in part by U.S. airstrikes in the region.

Although the U.S. air strikes have been narrow in scope, they have boosted morale on the ground.

“For sure, the air strikes have buoyed the spirits of the fighters and the civilians, and they’re all very happy,” said Dick Naab, a retired U.S. colonel who acts as an informal advisor to the peshmerga.

President Barack Obama authorized the air strikes to protect U.S. interests and personnel in the region, including at facilities in Erbil, as well as Yazidi refugees who have fled into the mountains to save themselves from the militants.

Still, a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said some staff members from the consulate in Erbil had been relocated to Basra, in southern Iraq, and Amman, Jordan, because of the security situation.