Obama ready to strike at Iraqi extremists

BARACK Obama said yesterday he was ready to launch ‘targeted’ strikes against jihadist fighters in Iraq.

But the US President played down the prospect of wider intervention unless there was major political reform in Baghdad. He told Iraq’s sectarian government that America will not launch a bombing campaign in support of ‘one sect’.

Mr Obama announced that up to 300 military experts will travel to the Iraqi capital to help the beleaguered Iraqi regime resist the onslaught by extremist group ISIS.

Speaking in Washington after a meeting of his security advisers, Mr Obama said US combat troops will not return to Iraq.

And he warned he would not agree to Iraqi demands for wider bombing missions against ISIS until the Shia-led regime adopted a more ‘inclusive’ approach to the country’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

Mr Obama insisted he was not trying to force out Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki, whose divisive regime is blamed for sowing the seeds for the rise of ISIS by discriminating against Sunni Muslims.

But he warned: ‘The US will not pursue military options to support one sect.’

Diplomats fear that taking sides with an unreformed al-Maliki regime could worsen Iraq’s sectarian tensions. There are also fears that a wider bombing campaign against ISIS would inevitably lead to civilian deaths among the Sunni population, potentially driving support for the insurgency.

In an apparent swipe at his predecessor George W Bush, Mr Obama said America had to ‘ask hard questions before taking military action abroad’. He said the US wanted to avert an ‘all- out civil war’ in Iraq and America was ready for ‘targeted and precise military action’ against Islamists ‘if and when the situation on the ground requires it’.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would not be involved in military action in Iraq. But he warned the country could fracture unless action was taken to heal deep sectarian divisions.

Mr Hague added: ‘Iraq faces a severe challenge. This will be a decisive moment in its history. That is why its leaders have to respond to that challenge by rising above sectarianism.’

Meanwhile, Sunni militants hung their black banners on watchtowers at Iraq’s largest oil refinery yesterday as soldiers and helicopter gunships fought a desperate battle to stop them over-running the complex.

The two sides were said to hold different parts of the Baiji facility, which is vital to the country’s oil production.

Control of the Baiji facility would be a major coup for the Al Qaeda-inspired insurgents, who hope to make millions of dollars in revenue from operating the refinery.