UK to send hundreds of troops to Iraq

13 December 2014

Britain will send hundreds of troops to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Iraq, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Saturday, in a bid to step up the battle against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters.

U.S President Barack Obama has already authorized the deployment of over 3,000 troops to the country and the top U.S
commander guiding the coalition effort said earlier this week that allies would send about 1,500 additional troops.

Fallon said troops in the “very low hundreds” would be sent next month.

He said that following air strikes by U.S.-led forces including Britain, ISIS had changed its methods, moving away from use of large formations in open space.

“They are increasingly tucked away in towns and villages.  That means they have got to be rooted out by ground troops.

“This has to be done by an own-grown army, not by western groups.”

Continued gains

On Saturday, ISIS fighters killed at least 19 policemen in a town in Western Iraq, as the group continues to seize territory in the region, despite aerial strikes.

Fallon told the newspaper that the exact number of Britons to be sent had not been finalised but that one of four teams would provide training in a Kurdish area and the remaining three in locations nearer to Baghdad.

“A key skill we are going to be helping with is counter-IED (improvised explosive devices), particularly vehicle explosive 
devices which the Iraqi army hasn't come across for some time,” Fallon was quoted as saying.

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Kazakhstan Backs U.S. in Struggle with Islamic State

WASHINGTON – Kazakhstan supports the United States in the struggle against Islamic State, the Central Asian nation’s foreign minister said Wednesday in Washington, where he also took the opportunity to urge a “peaceful solution” to the crisis in Ukraine.

Erlan Idrissov addressed those issues, among others, in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

“Terrorism is a global phenomenon. The so-called Islamic State is a very ugly face of that unfortunate illness,” Kazakhstan’s top diplomat told Efe after his discussion with Kerry.

“The IS,” Idrissov stressed, “has become an international issue. Consequently, we welcome and we support the international community’s efforts to battle against the so-called Islamic State.”

Asked whether Washington has requested Kazakh military support for U.S.-led operations against IS in Syria and Iraq, Idrissov said: “The United States has made a universal appeal to all members of the international community to participate.”

“We have our way of addressing that matter, especially via cooperation between our respective agencies. That is very important,” the foreign minister said, without offering any details.

“Terrorism doesn’t recognize borders. It has become a global threat. Therefore, joining forces is a very wise and indispensable way of confronting that challenge,” he said, insisting that IS “does not deserve the name of Islam, because Islam is a very peaceful religion.”

Speaking to reporters before the meeting at the State Department, Kerry hailed the “growing security partnership” between the United States and Kazakhstan.

“We are working on the challenge of ISIL (Washington’s term for Islamic State), of counterterrorism,” the secretary said.

The two officials also discussed the conflict in Ukraine, a dispute that “makes life in Eurasia very complicated,” Idrissov told Efe.

“Kazakhstan is very unhappy with the fact that this crisis has still not been resolved,” he said, though adding that he was optimistic about a possible solution.

More than 4,300 combatants and civilians have been killed since ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine rose up in April against the new government in Kiev, while hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes.

“We expect a compromise and a peaceful solution to the crisis in Ukraine to be reached through dialogue among the parties,” the foreign minister said.

He reiterated Kazakh opposition to the sanctions the United States and the European Union have imposed on Russia over Ukraine.

Kazakhstan, a close ally of Moscow, “does not support the sanctions, because we believe they are not producing a result,” Idrissov said.

“We understand,” he said, “that sanctions can be used sometimes in an extreme situation as a last resort. But in this situation, the sanctions don’t help anyone. They don’t help Europe, they don’t help Russia, they don’t help Ukraine. The crisis continues there.”

“We encourage the United States, Europe, Russia and Ukraine to find a solution,” the Kazakh foreign minister said.

Idrissov and Kerry also talked about the situation in Afghanistan, where Astana is supporting the security forces, as well as nuclear proliferation, Iran’s nuclear program and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The minister’s agenda in Washington includes securing U.S. backing for energy-rich Kazakhstan’s bid to join the World Trade Organization.

“This is a very important point in our bilateral dialogue,” Idrissov said. “The U.S. supports Kazakhstan’s accession, but this matter is technically very complex. I hope that Kazakhstan enters the WTO sooner rather than later.”

President Barack Obama’s administration is “working hard on Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO,” Kerry said at the State Department.

U.S. to Receive Nurse Exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone

WASHINGTON – A U.S. nurse exposed to Ebola while working as a volunteer treating people sick with the virus in Sierra Leone will be admitted to the National Institute of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the institution announced Thursday.

The nurse, whose identity has not been made public, will be placed under observation in a special clinical studies unit, where healthcare professionals will follow the established protocols for dealing with Ebola patients.

“The special clinical studies unit is specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists,” the NIH said in a statement.

“The unit staff is trained in strict infection control practices optimized to prevent spread of potentially transmissible agents such as Ebola. In addition, access to the unit will be strictly controlled,” the institution added.

Being exposed to the Ebola virus does not necessarily mean that someone has contracted it, given that it is transmitted only by direct contact with blood or body fluids from infected people or animals.

The World Health Organization, at latest count, estimates that 17,908 people have become infected with Ebola to date, of whom 6,373 have died.

More than a dozen people with Ebola have been treated in the United States so far and two of them have died.

The fatalities include surgeon Martin Salia, who contracted the disease in his native Sierra Leone, and Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who came to Dallas, Texas, in September when he was already unknowingly infected and died the following month in a local hospital.

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Iran nuclear talks to resume next week

The world powers and the Iranian regime will resume nuclear talks in Geneva next Wednesday, the state-run news agency IRNA reported on Friday.

Before the talks, bilateral meetings at deputy minister level between Iran and the P5+1 group, including Britain, France, the United States, Russia, China plus Germany, will also be held in Geneva, said Abbas Araqchi.

The latest round of the nuclear talks ended in Vienna on Nov. 24 without a permanent agreement. However, both sides agreed to extend the talks until July 1, 2015.

The Iranian regime has been a target of UN sanctions due to its attempts to build nuclear weapons.
The latest round of the nuclear talks ended in Vienna on Nov. 24 without a permanent agreement. However, both sides agreed to extend the talks until July 1, 2015.

The Iranian regime agreed to negotiate due to mounting international pressure. However, has stalled on signing a permanent agreement due to West’s concessions