British Premier Offers to Expand Assistance to Kurdish Forces in Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/world/europe/british-premier-offers-to-expand-assistance-to-kurdish-forces-in-iraq.html

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Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain offered on Thursday to arm Kurdish forces fighting Islamist militants and refused to rule out British airstrikes in Iraq and possibly Syria. Britain has delivered nonlethal supplies to Kurdish fighters, who are on the front line of the battle against the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and it has helped to transport ammunition provided by others. Mr. Cameron’s comments suggest that Britain could begin to supply ammunition directly to Kurdish forces. In a BBC interview, Mr. Cameron refused to rule out airstrikes but said they would not take place in Iraq before the formation of a new government in Baghdad. He also suggested that there might not be any legal impediment to attacking militants in Syria without the agreement of Syria’s government because it had committed “war crimes” against its own people and was therefore “illegitimate.”