Arab Nations Offer to Conduct Airstrikes Against ISIS, U.S. Officials Say
Arab Nations Offer to Conduct Airstrikes Against ISIS, U.S. Officials Say
By MICHAEL R. GORDON SEPT. 14, 2014
PARIS — Several Arab countries have offered to carry out airstrikes against militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, senior State Department officials said Sunday.
The offer was disclosed by American officials traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is approaching the end of a weeklong trip that was intended to mobilize international support for the campaign against ISIS.
“There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action,” said one of the officials, who used the acronym for the United States Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
Mr. Kerry, who is in Paris to attend an international conference the French are hosting on Monday on providing aid to the new Iraqi government, has already visited Baghdad; Amman, Jordan; Jidda, Saudi Arabia; Ankara, Turkey; and Cairo.
During Mr. Kerry’s stop in Jidda on Thursday, 10 Arab countries joined the United States in issuing a communiqué that endorsed efforts to confront and ultimately “destroy” ISIS, including military action to which nations would contribute “as appropriate.”
American officials said that the communiqué should be interpreted as meaning that some, but not all, of the 10 Arab countries would play a role in the military effort.
The United States has a broad definition of what it would mean to contribute to the military campaign.
“Providing arms could be contributing to the military campaign,” said a second State Department official. “Any sort of training activity would be contributing to the military campaign.”
Still, while the United States would clearly have the dominant role in an air campaign to roll back ISIS’s gains in Iraq, it is clear that other nations may also participate.
President François Hollande of France told Iraqi officials that his country would be willing to carry out airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, senior Iraqi officials said.
“We need aerial support from our allies,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq said during a joint news conference with Mr. Hollande. “The French president promised me today that France will participate in this effort, hitting the positions of the terrorists in Iraq.”
The State Department officials, who asked not to be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters, did not say which Arab nations had offered to carry out airstrikes, and there are also other ways Arab nations could participate in an air campaign against ISIS without dropping bombs, such as flying arms to Baghdad or Erbil in the Kurdistan region, conducting reconnaissance flights or providing logistical support and refueling. The officials said the Arab offers were under discussion.
“The Iraqis would have to be a major participant in that decision,” said the first State Department official. “It has to be well structured and organized.”
Iraqi officials have long experience working with the United States military and appealed for American airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Iraq months before the Obama administration decided to conduct them.
But the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government has no experience in working with militaries from Sunni states in the Persian Gulf.
Arab nations have the capability to conduct air operations. Saudi Arabian planes participated in the American-led coalition that evicted Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991.
And the United Arab Emirates sent F-16s and Mirage fighters to join the 2011 international military intervention in Libya that eventually led to the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Last month, the U.A.E. carried out airstrikes against Islamist allied militias in Libya, operating out of bases in Egypt. The Obama administration was not consulted in advance of that operation, American officials have acknowledged.
Iraq has a small air force and a limited capacity to deliver accurate airstrikes. The civilian casualties from some Iraqi attacks have been exploited by ISIS to try to mobilize popular support against the Iraqi government.
On Saturday, Mr. Abadi sought to reassure Sunnis that Iraqi forces would not risk civilian casualties by using artillery or conducting airstrikes against ISIS targets in heavily populated areas.
“They have a very new air force,” a third State Department official said, referring to the Iraqi military. “Their targeting is not nearly as precise as ours and they have made some real mistakes.”
Regarding other military support, Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide bases for training moderate Syrian rebels. American officials say there have been similar efforts by other Arab countries, but declined to identify them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/wo...cial-says.html
