John Kerry: We are training 20,000 fighters to confront ISIS in Iraq
The American Secretary of State John Kerry. File photo.
(IraqiNews.com) US Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Tuesday, that the United States is training 20 thousand elements of the Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces to participate in the confrontations against ISIS in Iraq.
During a press conference in Rome, Kerry told reporters: “The United States and its allies targeted the infrastructure of ISIS and controlled the Syrian-Turkish borders,” pointing out that, “We are training about 20 thousand elements of the Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces, in addition to the local police.”
Kerry added, “We are pushing ISIS on the ground to come out of areas controlled by it, and we were able to expel them from 40 percent of the areas in Iraq and 30 percent of the areas in Syria,” indicating that, “The Iraqi army has stopped many of the operations by ISIS.”