Iraq does not need foreign troops: PM

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraq does not need foreign ground troops to defeat the Islamic State group, after Washington announced it would deploy special forces to fight the jihadists.

Abadi did not directly reject the deployment, of which US Secretary of State John Kerry said Baghdad had been informed before the announcement, but he insisted that any operations be coordinated with the Iraqi government.

The presence of American ground forces is a contentious issue in Iraq, where the United States fought a nearly nine-year war, and it is politically expedient for Abadi to distance himself from the deployment.

"There is no need for foreign ground combat forces in Iraqi territory," Abadi said in a statement released late Tuesday in which he praised the performance of Iraqi special forces.

"The Iraqi government stresses that any military operation or presence of any foreign force, special or not, in any place in Iraq cannot be done without its approval and coordination with it," the statement said.

Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the US was deploying a "specialised expeditionary targeting force" to Iraq to work alongside local forces against IS, which overran large parts of the country last year.

On Wednesday, Kerry said in Brussels that "the government of Iraq was of course briefed in advance of Secretary Carter's announcement".

Kerry also said Russia's role in Syria was welcome, as long as Moscow was focused only on IS. He also urged Nato allies to intensify the fight against IS, singling out Britain for praise as it looks set to join airstrikes against the jihadist group in Syria.

US-led coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren yesterday said the new special forces deployment would number roughly 100 personnel, and that it had been discussed with Abadi.

Though the new special forces troops will be based in Iraq, they will have the ability to also conduct raids across the border into northern Syria.

Abadi's remarks came a day after he said that Iraq has enough forces to defeat IS, an apparent response to a proposal by US senators to triple the number of American forces in the country.

Meanwhile, Syria's president Bashar al-Assad yesterday said Russia's involvement in his country's war has led to significant changes, including the "shrinking" of IS.

Russia launched air strikes in late September in support of Assad. Assad told Czech television that US air strikes on Syria had not slowed IS, but that Russian bombing was doing so.