Ambassador denies US conducting helicopter raids in northern Iraq
Date
1/10/2016 6:28:33 AM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) File photo of US Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones at a news conference in Baghdad Iraq October 1 2015. Reuters
BAGHDAD: The US ambassador to Iraq hasdenied reports that the United States has been carrying outhelicopter raids against Islamic State militants in northernIraq.
"There have recently been reports of US helicopter raidsin Hawija and Kirkuk. As Defense Minister Obaidi and numerousother Iraqi officials have stated reports of these raids areuntrue" Stuart Jones said in a statement on Saturday.
Recent reports of more than a dozen air raids led by USspecial forces have been decried by powerful Iranian-backedShi'ite militias and other critics of Prime Minister Haideral-Abadi as violations of Iraqi sovereignty.
"I want to stress what I have said many times before: Iraqisovereignty is sacred and must be respected. All coalitionactivities conducted in Iraq are and will be in consultationwith the Iraqi government" Jones said referring to theUS-led coalition bombing Islamic State targets and trainingIraqi forces.
Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri told Reuters onThursday foreign special forces have been conducting raidsbehind Islamic State lines in Hawija ahead of an offensiveplanned later this year to retake Mosul the largest city underIslamic State control.
He said the raids were carried out "from time to time" and"supported by Iraqi forces" but did not specify whether theUnited States had played a role or how many had occurred.
Dubai-based al-Hadath TV and Iraqi media have reportedseveral air raids over the last month in and around Hawija 210km (130 miles) north of Baghdad.
Washington said last month it was deploying a new force ofaround 100 special operations troops to Iraq to carry outstrikes against Islamic State there and in neighbouring Syria.US officials gave no details.
Both the U.S. and Iraqi military have denied that USforces have carried out military operations on the ground inHawija since October when US special forces and Kurdishpeshmerga commandos rescued 69 Iraqis in a raid in which oneUS commando was killed.
Reuters