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Iraq Approves US Airstrike on IS Targets Near Baghdad: Reports

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Iraq has praised Monday’s US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants near Baghdad as important, Iraqi military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim Atta said Tuesday.

DUBAI, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – Iraq has praised Monday’s US airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) militants near Baghdad as important, Iraqi military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim Atta said Tuesday.

“The American Air Force together and in coordination with the General Staff in Baghdad carried out important strikes on targets in Sadr al-Yusufiyah [township 15 miles from Baghdad],” Atta was quoted as saying by the media outlet Alwasatnews.

The United States is fully coordinating its intelligence operations and airstrikes with Iraqi authorities, Atta underlined.

Iraqi security forces requested US Air Force support as they engaged IS fighters south of the country’s capital.

The most recent air attack near Baghdad was the first US “offensive” strike, unlike previous ”defensive” airstrikes aimed at protecting important American and Iraqi sites, an unnamed US defense ministry official said.

Monday’s attack marked the beginning of the United States’ new strategy against IS militants in Iraq, which aims "to degrade and ultimately destroy" them, US President Barack Obama said in his address last week.

Obama previously said that the United States did not intend to send its army back to Iraq and would not participate in attacks on the ground.

The IS militant group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012 and started launching attacks in northern and western Iraq in June, 2014. IS militants have seized vast areas in both countries and have proclaimed an Islamic caliphate on all the territories under its control.

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