US strategy on Iraq 'not yet complete' - Obama

Baku.9 June. REPORT.AZ/ The US does not yet have a "complete strategy" for helping Iraq regain territory from Islamic State (IS), President Barack Obama has said.

Report informs citing BBC, Obama said the Pentagon was reviewing ways to help Iraq train and equip its forces.

But Mr Obama said a full commitment to the process was needed by the Iraqis themselves.

He had earlier met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Germany.

IS has recently made gains in Iraq despite US-led coalition air strikes.

In May the militants seized Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest province, as well as the Syrian town of Tadmur and the neighbouring ancient ruins of Palmyra.

US officials cited a lack of training as a major factor in the fall of Ramadi.

But Mr Obama said that the 3,000 US service personnel in Iraq sometimes found themselves with "more training capacity than we've got recruits".

"We don't have, yet, a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place," Mr Obama told a news conference.