PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA has authorised military aid of up to $25million for Iraq.
The money is to be used for military education and training to provide immediate military assistance to the Government of Iraq – including the Kurdistan Regional Government.
It is being used to help them in their fight against Islamic State.
A statement on the White House website said:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 01 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority under section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to direct the drawdown of up to $25 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense and military education and training to provide immediate military assistance to the Government of Iraq, including the Kurdistan Regional Government, to aid their efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.
Obama is due to make a prime time address in the US tonight to argue that targeted military and an international coalition can defeat IS.
He is expected to say that he will not send conventional ground troops back to Iraq, even in the wake of the execution of two US journalists by Islamic state.
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