The US-led coalition against Islamic State could take up to two years to expel the group from Iraq, while Baghdad's own forces will be incapable of proper combat operations for months, a coalition meeting in London has heard .
Speaking before he hosted a meeting of 21 coalition members in London, UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the task of pushing the Islamist militants back would be slow.
“This isn’t going to be done in three months or six months. It’s going to take a year, two years to push Isil (Islamic State) back out of Iraq but we are doing the things that need to be done in order to turn the tide,” Mr Hammond told reporters.
Intensifying campaign
The meeting, attended by US secretary of state John Kerry and Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi, will examine ways of intensifying the campaign against IS in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere by increasing military efforts, cutting off the group's finances and stemming the flow of foreign fighters.
Mr Kerry said before the meeting it was a vital opportunity to adjust the coalition’s strategy.
“The purpose of coming here is to bring everybody’s best advice, everybody’s thoughts about where there may be weaknesses, everybody’s thoughts about things we can do better, put that together . . . and lay down the strategy for the days ahead,” Mr Kerry said.
Mr Abadi will tell delegates how his government's fight against IS is progressing. He met UK prime minister David Cameron before the meeting and asked for more military training and ammunition.
Mr Cameron told Mr Abadi that the UK was ready to help, but stopped short of making any new commitments.
“The threat from extremist terror you face in Iraq is also a threat we face here in the UK,” Mr Cameron said. “We will do everything we can to help stop foreign fighters coming to your country and creating the mayhem we see today.”
Kurdish forces advance
The meeting is taking place a day after Kurdish forces in northern Iraq said they had cleared IS insurgents from nearly 500 sq km of territory and broken a key IS supply line between the city of Mosul and strongholds to the west.
Mr Hammond praised Iraqi forces, saying the coalition was helping rebuild their ranks so they could launch a sustained ground offensive against IS. He warned it would be a long process.
“It will be months yet before they are ready to start significant combat operations,” Mr Hammond told reporters.
Reuters