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Iraqi premier Haidar al-Abadi speaks during a press conference in the capital Baghdad on August 25, 2014. SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister strongly rejected the idea of the U.S. or other nations sending ground forces to his country to help fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, saying Wednesday that foreign troops are "out of the question."

In his first interview with foreign media since taking office on Sept. 8, Haider al-Abadi told The Associated Press that the U.S. aerial campaign currently targeting the militants who have overrun much of northern and western Iraq has helped efforts to roll back the Sunni extremists. He also urged the international community to go after the group in neighboring Syria, saying the battle will prove endless unless the militants are wiped out there as well.

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The U.S. is trying to line up an international coalition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as ISIL), which has carved out a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. President Barack Obama has outlined a plan that includes a broader military campaign in Iraq, increased support and training for Syrian rebel groups, and expanded airstrikes against the militants in Syria.

Al-Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker who faces the enormous task of trying to hold Iraq together as a vast array of forces threaten to rip it apart, welcomed the emerging international effort, but stressed that he sees no need for other nations to send troops to help fight ISIS.

"Not only is it not necessary," he said, "We don't want them. We won't allow them. Full stop."

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While testifying in front of Congress Tuesday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, charman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S. ground troops might be n...

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Iraq's prime minister says no to foreign troops

Published September 17, 2014

Sept. 17, 2014: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqs new prime minister says foreign ground troops are neither necessary nor wanted in his country's fight against the Islamic State group.(AP)

Iraq's new prime minister said Wednesday that foreign ground troops are neither necessary nor wanted in his country's fight against the Islamic State group, flatly rejecting the idea a day after the top U.S. general recommended that American forces may be needed if current efforts to combat the extremists fail.

In his first interview with foreign media since taking office on Sept. 8, Haider al-Abadi told The Associated Press that U.S. airstrikes have been helpful in the country's efforts to roll back the Sunni militant group, but stressed that putting foreign boots on the ground "is out of the question."

"Not only is it not necessary," he said, "We don't want them. We won't allow them. Full stop."

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that American ground troops may be needed to battle Islamic State forces in the Middle East if President Barack Obama's current strategy fails, as Congress plunged into an election-year debate of Obama's plan to expand airstrikes and train Syrian rebels.

Al-Abadi also urged the international community to expand its campaign against the extremists to neighboring Syria.

"The fight will go on unless ISIL is hit in Syria," he said, using an acronym for the group. "This is the responsibility of the international community -- on top of them the United States government -- to do something about ISIL in Syria."

The Islamic State group was established in Iraq but spread to Syria, where it grew exponentially in the chaos of the country's civil war. Following its success in Syria, the extremist group's fighters -- including many Iraqi nationals -- rampaged across northern and western Iraq in June, seizing control of a huge swath of territory. The group now rules over land stretching from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad.

"We cannot afford to fight our neighbor, even if we disagree on many things," al-Abadi said. "This is our neighbor. We don't want to enter into problems with them. For us sovereignty of Syria is very important."

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Foreign troops not wanted in fight against ISIS, Iraq PM says

Sept. 17, 2014: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Iraqs new prime minister says foreign ground troops are neither necessary nor wanted in his countrys fight against the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)(The Associated Press)

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi walks to an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Iraqs new prime minister says foreign ground troops are neither necessary nor wanted in his countrys fight against the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)(The Associated Press)

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Iraqs new prime minister says foreign ground troops are neither necessary nor wanted in his countrys fight against the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)(The Associated Press)

BAGHDAD Iraq's prime minister strongly rejected the idea of the U.S. or other nations sending ground forces to his country to help fight the Islamic State group, saying Wednesday that foreign troops are "out of the question."

In his first interview with foreign media since taking office on Sept. 8, Haider al-Abadi told The Associated Press that the U.S. aerial campaign currently targeting the militants who have overrun much of northern and western Iraq has helped efforts to roll back the Sunni extremists. He also urged the international community to go after the group in neighboring Syria, saying the battle will prove endless unless the militants are wiped out there as well.

The U.S. is trying to line up an international coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, which has carved out a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. President Barack Obama has outlined a plan that includes a broader military campaign in Iraq, increased support and training for Syrian rebel groups, and expanded airstrikes against the militants in Syria.

Al-Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker who faces the enormous task of trying to hold Iraq together as a vast array of forces threaten to rip it apart, welcomed the emerging international effort, but stressed that he sees no need for other nations to send troops to help fight the Islamic State.

"Not only is it not necessary," he said, "We don't want them. We won't allow them. Full stop."

Al-Abadi's comments provided a sharp rebuttal to remarks a day earlier by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee that American ground troops may be needed to battle Islamic State forces in the Middle East if Obama's current strategy fails.

Read the original here:
Iraq PM rejects idea of US, other nations sending ground forces to fight ISIS

Published September 17, 2014

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the first in a series of high-profile Capitol Hill hearings that will measure the president's ability to rally congressional support for President Barack Obama's strategy to combat Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014. Obama last week outlined his military plan to destroy the extremists, authorizing U.S. airstrikes inside Syria, stepping up attacks in Iraq and deploying additional American troops, with more than 1,000 now advising and assisting Iraqi security forces to counter the terrorism threat. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(The Associated Press)

PARIS About half of Iraq's army is incapable of partnering effectively with the U.S. to roll back the Islamic State group's territorial gains in western and northern Iraq, and the other half needs to be partially rebuilt with U.S. training and additional equipment, the top U.S. military officer said Wednesday.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former wartime commander of U.S. training programs in Iraq, said a renewed U.S. training effort might revive the issue of gaining legal immunity from Iraqi prosecution for those U.S. troops who are training the Iraqis. The previous Iraqi government refused to grant immunity for U.S. troops who might have remained as trainers after the U.S. military mission ended in December 2011.

"There will likely be a discussion with the new Iraqi government, as there was with the last one, about whether we need to have" Iraqi lawmakers approve new U.S. training, he said. He didn't describe the full extent of such training but said it would be limited and he believed Iraq would endorse it.

"This is about training them in protected locations and then enabling them" with unique U.S. capabilities such as intelligence, aerial surveillance and air power, as well as U.S. advisers, so they can "fight the fight" required to push the Islamic State militants back into Syria, Dempsey said. He spoke with a small group of reporters traveling with him to Paris to meet with his French counterpart to discuss the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and other issues.

The bolstering of Iraqi security forces is one element in a multifaceted campaign plan that President Barack Obama is to be briefed on Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, when he meets with Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, which manages U.S. military operations and relations across the Middle East.

A Pentagon plan for training Syrian rebels is another, more controversial element of the plan, which also includes potential airstrikes in Syria; building an international coalition to combat the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq; and efforts to cut off finances and stem the flow of foreign fighters to the Islamic State group.

Once Obama signs off on the plan, the Iraq portion will need to be adapted, in consultation with the Iraqi government, to fit the Iraqis' priorities, Dempsey said.

Dempsey said U.S. military teams that spent much of the summer in Iraq assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Iraqi security forces concluded that 26 of 50 army brigades were capable partners for the U.S. He described them as well led and well equipped, adding, "They appear to have a national instinct, instead of a sectarian instinct." He said the 24 other brigades were too heavily weighted with Shiites to be part of a credible national force.

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Top US general says half of Iraq's army unsuitable to partner with US against Islamic State

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