Defense News reports that “the Iraqi ambassador to the United States explicitly called for ramped up American military involvement in his country on Monday, asking the United States to launch air strikes against positions being held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Sunni extremist group that has gained control over swaths of northern and western Iraq.”  

“H.E. Lukman Faily told an audience at an Atlantic Council event in Washington that for the US and Iraq ‘to conduct counterterrorism operations in urban areas occupied by ISIL, we need precision US air attacks,’ and that ‘the US should offer air support targeting terrorist camps and supply convoys in remote areas.’”  

“American air strikes would also “protect Iraq’s borders against further terrorist influx” the ambassador said, since key elements of ISIL have flowed across the porous Iraq/Syria border in the past several months, giving the group freedom of movement across the Sunni-dominated western Iraq and eastern Syria.”