Iraq has formally asked the U.S. to launch airstrikes against the Sunni terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday, the BBC reported.
The request came shortly after it was reported that ISIL was largely in control of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery north of Baghdad.
Gen. Dempsey told a Senate panel Wednesday that that it was in America’s “national interest to counter [ISIL] wherever we find them,” BBC reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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