Iraq Asking for US Air Strikes Against al-Qaeda

Administration Weighing Possible Involvement in Iraq

Officials say that the Iraqi government has requested US military aid in the form of air strikes against al-Qaeda targets in the country, multiple requests over the last several weeks.

Though the requests began a while ago, al-Qaeda in Iraq’s (AQI’s) recent expansion into Mosul and Tikrit reportedly has the Obama Administration considering some involvement, including drone strikes, in the ongoing war.

US involvement in Iraq has gone extremely poorly in the past. AQI, the force that is now tearing through the Iraqi military, was virtually nonexistent before the 2003 US occupation, and grew primarily to fight the US, before moving on to other targets after the US pullout.

That has the administration reluctant to get too deeply sucked into another Iraq War, so beyond potential air strikes, the US involvement will likely focus on throwing military aid at Iraq.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.