CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (AP) – With U.S. help, Iraqi security forces have achieved a “new momentum” in their battle to regain territory lost this year to the Islamic State group, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday.
Speaking to reporters at this Army camp in northern Kuwait, which serves as a staging and logistics hub for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, Hagel offered an upbeat assessment of progress in Iraq since the U.S. began launching airstrikes against IS in August.
“It’s given them some new momentum,” he said.
Hagel said that the Islamic State group remains a formidable threat, not only to Iraq but also to neighboring Iran and other countries in the region. He repeated the U.S. government’s policy of not coordinating military action in Iraq with Iran, but he also suggested that Iran has reason to be concerned about the long-term ambitions of the Islamic State.
“They are threatened by ISIL, just like every government in the Middle East is clearly threatened by ISIL,” Hagel said, using an alternative acronym for the extremist group.