Pentagon Announces Multinational Effort to Aide Iraqi Kurds

Two weeks after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel commissioned a working group to speed up resupply efforts for Iraqi Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, the Pentagon announced a multinational effort to provide arms, equipment, and supplies to forces fighting ISIS militants. In addition to support from the Baghdad government and the US, seven nations are now committed to providing logistical support and resupply to Kurdish forces, including Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, said Hagel in a statement. The effort is being coordinated with the Baghdad government and will “greatly assist Kurdish forces in repelling the brutal terrorist threat they face.” Speaking with reporters about the effort, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said many of these nations have larger stocks of weapons and munitions that Kurdish forces use, “which isn’t necessarily just American-made material,” he said. This includes small arms munitions and other “personnel-served weaponry,” he added. US aircraft continued to strike targets in and around Irbil Tuesday, hitting two armed vehicles and damaging another in two air attacks. (Kirby transcript)