U.S. Officials Weigh Next Moves to Defeat Iraq Extremists
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The U.S. is pursuing a four-pronged strategy to thwart Islamic State extremists in Iraq and avert a collapse of the oil-rich nation, while plans to do more depend on the outcome of the leadership struggle in Baghdad.
The steps to deal with the immediate crisis include some that have been made public, such as limited airstrikes and sending arms to the Kurds, and some that haven’t, such as providing battlefield intelligence to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and pressing Sunni Arab nations to support the fight against the insurgents, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because elements of the evolving approach are classified.