Iraq completes unity govt
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Iraqi MPs yesterday approved new defence and interior ministers, completing a unity government that is battling the spread of so called Islamic State militants.
Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a Shia, was appointed interior minister, while Khaled al-Obeidi, a Sunni, was confirmed as defence minister.
ISIS controls large parts of the country and neighbouring Syria, and has been making gains despite US-led coalition air strikes.
The vote by Iraqi MPs will be a big relief both inside and outside Iraq after weeks of wrangling, says BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher. Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had pledged to fill the posts in September, but his previous nominations were rejected.
A more inclusive cabinet is seen as an essential first step in countering ISIS fighters, particularly among Iraq's Sunni minority.
The previous Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was forced to resign in August, as the Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities accused his administration of pursuing sectarian policies.
Iraqi government forces, supported by US-led air strikes, are currently battling ISIS near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, as well as the city of Tikrit, which was seized by ISIS earlier this year.
Meanwhile, US military officials said in a statement that they had conducted 10 air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq, and 15 air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, on Friday and yesterday.
ISIS buildings, oil facilities and armed vehicles were among the targets destroyed, the statement added.
Meanwhile, a Britain-based NGO, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Friday said Iraqi pilots who have joined the ISIS in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report and US Central Command said it was not aware of ISIS flying jets in Syria.
It was not clear whether the jets were equipped with weaponry or whether the pilots could fly longer distances in the planes, which witnesses said appeared to be MiG 21 or MiG 23 models captured from the Syrian military.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobane repulsed a new attempt by ISIS fighters to cut off the border with Turkey yesterday.
US war planes struck more than two dozen times in Syria and Iraq on Friday and yesterday, hitting jihadists and oil infrastructure they control, the American military said.
But the US military said that while it saw some "encouraging" signs, the strikes might not prevent Kobane's fall and its priority remained the campaign against the group in Iraq.
"Iraq is our main effort and it has to be, and the things that we're doing right now in Syria are being done primarily to shape the conditions in Iraq," said General Lloyd Austin.
In Pakistan, a leading group of Pakistani clerics on Friday condemned the ISIS, amid concerns the hardline jihadists could gain a foothold in the militant-plagued nuclear state.
The Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) said the group, which has declared a "caliphate" in areas it controls in Iraq and Syria, was violating Islamic teaching.
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