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       Iraqi Forces Will Prevail in Tikrit, US Joint Chiefs Chairman Says

   by VOA News

   The top U.S. military officer says Iraqi forces will take back the city
   of Tikrit from Islamic State militants, but only because of U.S.-led
   coalition airstrikes.

   General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff,
   said on his way to Baghdad that the number of Iraqi forces fighting the
   extremists was overwhelming. But he said he didn't think the Iraqis
   could have made progress in Tikrit had the militants not been slowed
   down by the U.S.-led airstrikes.

   Tikrit, a major city near Baghdad, is the birthplace of the late Iraqi
   dictator Saddam Hussein.

   Iraqi officials said they were meeting strong resistance from Islamic
   State near Tikrit, but Dempsey said it was only a matter of time before
   the extremists were beaten.

   Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in Paris on Saturday for
   talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, said Sunni tribes
   and Shi'ite militias, some of whom were getting orders from Iran, were
   helping Iraqis in the fight for Tikrit.

   Kerry said this did not mean the U.S. was coordinating action with the
   Iranians. He said the U.S. still condemns Iran for its actions in
   Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.

   He said at a news conference, "If Iran kills a bunch of ISIL [Islamic
   State forces] on the ground and it serves the interests of Iraq and the
   rest of us, that might wind up helping. But it doesn't mean that we
   accept in any way their behavior with respect to other things they're
   doing in Yemen, in Beirut, in Damascus."

   Iran has long supported Lebanese-based Hezbollah extremists. It also
   backs Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria and has aided Yemen's
   Houthi rebels.

   Also Saturday, Canada said one of its coalition solders was killed in
   Iraq and three were wounded in what officials called a friendly-fire
   incident involving Kurdish forces.

   The Pentagon said an investigation was under way.
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   t-chiefs-chairman/2671634.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/iraqi-forces-will-prevail-tikrit-joint-chiefs-chairman/2671634.html