U.S. leads 22 more air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria

Mr. Jaafari said his country’s military, with the support of global airstrikes, was winning the flight against Islamic State in Iraq despite numerous setbacks.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari speaks to the media during a news conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu after their talks in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, November 5, 2014.

“We acknowledge that the Iraqis have not made any significant forward movement recently”, said Col. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a telephone briefing with Pentagon reporters. “They have pushed terrorists (back)… and forced them to go back up north towards Mosul”, said Jaafari, who is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Ryder said the USA military believes the Iraqis have enough troops near Ramadi to move forward.

“We need equipment, training and intelligence, but not ground troops or bases from this or that country“, he said.

The coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS positions since a year ago in an effort to support Iraqi forces fighting to dislodge the Sunni extremist group from the areas of northern and western Iraq that it controls as well as IS positions in eastern Syria.