BAGHDAD
Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi met with Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on Monday, according to the statement from Iraqi presidency office.
The two officials discussed the recent wide-scale offensive against Daesh as well as the needs of the Iraqi army in the fight against the militant group also known as ISIL, according to the statement.
"The international community's continued support in training and arming the Iraqi army is very important," Ibadi said in the statement. "The Iraqi army has significant success against Daesh militants so far."
On Monday morning, Wasta Rasul, a peshmerga commander, said Iraqi Kurdish troops, backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, began a wide-scale offensive against Daesh at 4 a.m. local time (0700 GMT).
According to Mahmoud Osman, a Kurdish MP of the regional Iraqi parliament, the operation has been a "success" so far as at least 150 Daesh troops have been killed in the operation launched in the northern city of Kirkuk's south.
Since mid-June, fighting in Iraq has pitted the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga forces against militants from Daesh. The group has taken control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, as well as of large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. is leading an international coalition, which includes France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, among others, that has carried out numerous airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
www.aa.com.tr/en
