Iraq's prime minister will plead for more US military support in the war against insurgent Islamic State jihadists during a first White House meeting with President Barack Obama today.
Embarking on his inaugural prime ministerial trip to Washington, Haider al-Abadi said his top priority would be to secure a "marked increase" in the US-led air campaign and in the "delivery of arms."
Abadi arrives in the United States with swathes of his country including the second city, Mosul still under occupation by militants bent on establishing an Islamic caliphate.
His armed forces, ravaged by years of war, desertion and underfunding, have parried the Islamic State's advance on Baghdad, but struggled to get on the front foot.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the lost territory amounts to some 13,000 to 17,000 square kilometers (5,000 to 6,600 square miles).
A recent Iraqi effort to wrest control of Tikrit stalled until the US military pounded IS positions with air strikes.
'We want to see more'
Obama has made degrading and destroying the Islamic State a priority, fearing the organization's foothold in Iraq and Syria provides a base for terror operations, while destabilizing those countries and the region.
Today's talks at the White House are expected to focus on defining the next steps in that fight.
But amid skepticism that Iraqi forces are up to the task, Abadi last week announced the next steps may come in Anbar province.
"It's going to take a lot of capacity, which is going to take time to build," said one official.
There is concern in Washington that Shiite militias fighting the IS group are controlled by the Iranian government rather than Abadi's.
Whatever the strategy, victory and stability are unlikely to come quickly.
"This is a long-term campaign," said one US official. "It is going to be a long, long, long haul, I cannot overemphasize that."
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