MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Sunday that the United Kingdom eyes sending weaponry and ammunition to the Iraqi Kurds so that they can fight the Islamic State (IS) militants, BBC reported Sunday.
"Our strategy is clear. We are investing significant resources to tackle this problem for the long-term," Hammond was quoted as saying.
According to Hammond, the UK had assisted Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, who are battling against Islamic State, with military aircraft delivering equipment, so that the Kurds will be “familiar” with the upcoming deliveries.
Hammond noted that the Islamic State was “turning a swathe of Iraq and Syria into a terrorist state as a base for launching attacks on the West." He added that the threat from Syria and Iraq would last a generation.
The IS is a radical Sunni group that has been fighting in Syria before launching an offensive in Iraq in June. Later that month, the militants announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control.
Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama authorized military airstrikes targeting the militants. Since August 8, US Central Command has conducted a total of 94 airstrikes across Iraq, 61 of which have been in support of Iraqi forces near the Mosul Dam.
