Hollande in Baghdad to support efforts to defeat IS

French President Francois Hollande flew into Baghdad Friday in a show of support to the Iraqi government as global efforts to defeat jihadist fighters intensified.
His was the highest-profile visit to Iraq since extremist Sunni militants overran large parts of the country in June and sparked international concern over an expanding jihadist threat.
Hollande touched down hours after Washington secured the support of 10 Arab states to help stamp out the Islamic State (IS) group, which the CIA said Thursday had up to around 30,000 fighters on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
The United States last month launched air strikes in northern Iraq, three years after pulling its troops out of the country, and President Barack Obama vowed this week to expand operations.
He is seeking to build a broad coalition to defeat IS, which has declared a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria, attacked religious minorities, posted videos of gruesome beheadings on the Internet and even vowed to take the fight to the West.
France has said it is prepared to take part in air strikes against the militants in Iraq "if necessary", and hosts an international conference on Iraq on Monday.
At a meeting in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, 10 Arab states including Saudi Arabia "agreed to do their share in the comprehensive fight" against Islamic State, said a statement after a meeting Thursday between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Arab counterparts.
- 'Hateful ideology' -
Along with the Saudis, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon are Arab parties to the coalition agreement.
The fight would include "stopping the flow of foreign fighters through neighbouring countries, countering financing of (IS) and other violent extremists, repudiating their hateful ideology, ending impunity and bringing perpetrators to justice."
It would also include humanitarian relief.
Hollande's plane was carrying 15 tonnes of humanitarian aid to be delivered in the Kurdish capital Arbil later Friday.
France has been supplying arms -- as have the United States, Britain -- to the autonomous Kurdish government, whose peshmerga forces play a key role in attempts to recapture the vast swathes of land IS seized in the past three months.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was in Iraq with Hollande, said on Wednesday that France was prepared to take part in US-led air strikes against the militants in Iraq "if necessary" but has stressed that Syria was a different situation.
On Friday Kerry heads to Ankara after Turkey refused to allow its air bases to be used in the campaign or to take part in combat.
A US official in Jeddah said Turkey had its reasons for staying out of the coalition. IS militants hold 49 Turks hostage, including diplomats and children, abducted from the Turkish consulate in Mosul in Iraq in June.
The militants now have about 20,000 to 31,500 fighters on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the Central Intelligence Agency said, much higher than a previous estimate of 10,000.
- Strong recruitment -
"This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity, and additional intelligence," CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said.
The vastly higher estimate underscored the scale of the challenge after Obama vowed to expand an offensive against the extremists, a plan which foresees air strikes against IS in Syria, expanded attacks in Iraq and new support for Baghdad's forces.
Iraq's new unity government and the Syrian opposition welcomed Obama's plan against IS, but Syria's regime and powerful ally Russia condemned it.
"Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria," National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said.
Moscow said unilateral action would be a "crude violation" of international law.
Kerry retorted that he was "really rather surprised that Russia would dare to assert any notion of international law after what has happened in Crimea and eastern Ukraine".
Obama has said he was sending another 475 military personnel to help train Iraqi forces, but stressed the campaign would not be a repeat of the exhausting ground wars fought by US troops in the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House has insisted Obama is authorised to strike IS in Iraq and Syria under a law passed by Congress after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
However Obama learned Thursday that he may have a wait on his hands before Congress signs off on his plan to train and equip Syrian rebels.
Also on Thursday the Pentagon announced US combat aircraft would soon start flying out of a base in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq as part of a "more aggressive" air campaign against IS jihadists.
Source: AFP