UK backs Iraq's mission to clear IS as Falluja operation begins, Hammond says

Record ID: 102310

  • Title: UK backs Iraq's mission to clear IS as Falluja operation begins, Hammond says
  • Date: 23rd May 2016
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MAY 23, 2016) (REUTERS) HAMMOND TALKING TO JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 7th June 2016 11:35
  • Keywords: EU foreign ministers Federica Mogherini Syria Iraq Philip Hammond United Kingdom
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: European Union,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0034J13GP3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Britain supports the Iraqi government in clearing Islamic State as an operation to retake the militant stronghold of Falluja begins, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday (May 23) as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
    Iraqi forces clashed with Islamic State militants near Falluja on Monday while bombing central districts in the initial hours of the offensive just west of Baghdad that could last several weeks.
    Falluja, a longtime bastion of Sunni Muslim jihadists, 50 km (30 miles) from Baghdad, was the first city to fall to Islamic State, in January 2014. Six months later, the group declared a caliphate spanning large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
    "This is a centre of Daesh influence that was bypassed in the advance up the Euphrates valley, and I think it shows the strength and self-confidence of the Iraqi forces that they're now going back and clearing these enclaves of Daesh activity," Hammond told reporters, adding that he believed the Iraqi army had the capability of winning the war against Islamic State.
    EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said it was important to defeat Islamic State to guarantee European security and to improve the lives of Syrian people, adding it was also important to keep Iraq in the picture.
    The EU bloc's foreign ministers will discuss a strategy for Syria and Iraq during Monday's meeting as well as migration.
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