AP, Paris, 13 August 2014 — Calling the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan “catastrophic,” France said Wednesday it would start supplying arms to the Kurdish forces fighting Sunni extremists from the Islamic State group.
The sudden announcement that arms would begin to flow within hours underlined France’s alarm at the urgency of the situation in Iraq, where the Islamic State fighters are threatening the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
The shipment of French arms, which the government refused to describe, follows the United States’ increased role in fighting back the Islamic extremists.
Senior American officials say U.S. intelligence agencies are directly arming the Kurds, a shift in Washington’s policy of only working through the Baghdad government.
On Tuesday, 130 U.S. troops arrived in the Kurdish capital of Irbil on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to coordinate plans to help trapped Yazidi civilians on Sinjar Mountain.
French authorities have pushed other European Union members to do more to aid Christian and other minorities being targeted by the Islamic extremists.