U.S. Aid Is Being Rushed To Iraq To Assist In The Fight Against Al Qaeda

U.S. Sends Arms to Aid Iraq Fight With Extremists -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.

But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.

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Update: Report: US Sending Missiles, Drones To Iraq -- Defense News/AFP

My Comment: This U.S. military aid is coming at a time where it is too little .... and too late. Al Qaeda is now entrenched and it is going to take more than a few drones to flush them out. The Iraqis must now be having buyers remorse for not signing that security pact with the U.S. two years ago. Bad for them .... thank God for us to have the excuse to leave Iraq in 2011.