French FM on Iraq visit to offer humanitarian aid

France's foreign minister said today his country is prepared to join multinational efforts to provide aid to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Iraqis and called upon leaders in Baghdad to unite against the Sunni militants.
Speaking at a press conference with Iraq's acting Foreign Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, Laurent Fabius said his visit is aimed at boosting humanitarian efforts in northern Iraq, where tens of thousands of minority Yazidis have fled into the mountains and even into neighboring Syria to escape the extremist Islamic State group.
The French diplomat also met with Iraq's embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki before traveling north to the Kurdish regional capital Irbil.

Islamic State fighters have rampaged across northern and western Iraq, and their advance on Irbil in recent days has prompted the US to launch airstrikes for the first time since troops withdrew at the end of 2011 following eight years of war.
The US military said a third round of four airstrikes carried out by fighter jets and drones took out Islamic State armored carriers and trucks being used in an attack on civilians.
US Central Command said the Islamic State militants were firing indiscriminately on members of the Yazidi minority taking shelter in the mountains outside the town of Sinjar. US and Iraqi aircraft have also dropped aid for the Yazidis, thousands of whom have been stranded on a scorching mountaintop since the Islamic militants seized Sinjar last week.

President Barack Obama warned Americans yesterday that the latest US military campaign in Iraq will be "a long-term project," the extent of which would depend on how soon Iraq's feuding leaders can set aside their differences to confront the insurgency.
"I don't think we are going to solve this problem in weeks," Obama said.
The lighting advance of the Islamic State group across Iraq in June plunged the country into its worst crisis since US troops withdrew at the end of 2011.