Iraq’s anti-ISIS strategy ‘bearing fruit’: U.N.
The new Iraqi government’s strategy of enlisting Kurds and local tribes in the fight against Islamists is yielding results, the U.N. envoy for Iraq told the Security Council on Tuesday. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has made it a priority to pay salaries, arm and train fighters from local tribes and communities and provide legal […]The new Iraqi government’s strategy of enlisting Kurds and local tribes in the fight against Islamists is yielding results, the U.N. envoy for Iraq told the Security Council on Tuesday. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has made it a priority to pay salaries, arm and train fighters from local tribes and communities and provide legal guarantees for volunteers, envoy Nickolay Mladenov said. “This strategy is bearing fruit,” Mladenov told the 15-member council. “Communities are beginning to push back.”
The massacre by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group of 322 members of the Albu Nimr tribe spurred cooperation with the government in its campaign to defeat the militants, he said. Mladenov called on all militia groups who are not aligned with the Islamist militants to enter talks with Baghdad on resolving differences and joining the government’s anti-Islamist campaign.
