Breaking News of The Day: Clinton looks to bounce back with Kentucky win

Hillary Clinton hopes to avoid another round of primary defeats that, while doing little to diminish her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, magnify her difficulty in unifying the Democratic Party.
Primaries in Oregon and Kentucky, which vote on Tuesday, could extend her losses after the Vermont senator carried Indiana and West Virginia earlier this month.

While Sanders is expected to win in Oregon, the Clinton campaign sees an opportunity in Kentucky, a state she carried easily in her primary campaign eight years ago.
Throughout the campaign, Clinton has struggled with working-class, white voters, however, particularly in communities hit hard by manufacturing job losses in the Rust Belt. It’s a group that's also boosting Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy.

Over the weekend, Clinton made several stops in Kentucky, including drop-ins at churches, and she continued her busy schedule on Monday. Despite an earlier decision to shift resources to general election swing states, the campaign is running television ads in the Bluegrass State.
On Monday, Clinton dropped by a smoke-filled diner in Paducah. “I want to help bring back the kind of economy that worked for everybody in the 1990s,” she told the audience, which included at least one Trump supporter.

Entering Tuesday's contests, Clinton leads Sanders by nearly 300 pledged delegates. When super delegates — elected officials and party leaders free to support either candidate — are factored in, her lead is much larger and brings her to within 150 delegates away of the 2,383 needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, according to the Associated Press. In the final round of state primaries next month, Clinton holds a 10-point lead in California, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, where 475 pledged delegates will be at stake.

Yet Sanders has repeatedly said he’ll fight all the way to the Philadelphia convention in July. And he’s showing he’ll battle for every last delegate, jetting on Monday to Puerto Rico, which holds a caucus on June 5.
Appalachian states, including West Virginia and Kentucky, had been loyal to Clinton, who won there by big margins over then-senator Barack Obama in 2008. Her husband also carried them in his 1992 and 1996 campaigns, and she’s been placing increased emphasis on his role in a possible Hillary Clinton administration, betting that he remains a popular figure in the region.

“I’ve already told my husband that, if I’m so fortunate to be president and he will be the first gentleman, I’ll expect him to go to work,” she told the Kentucky diners Monday.
On Sunday, she said the former president would be “in charge of economic revitalization,” particularly in hard-hit areas like Appalachian coal country. She’s also touting her plan for coal miners, including investments to create new jobs in infrastructure and repurposing mines and protecting miners’ health insurance and retirement programs.

While the outcome of the Kentucky primary won’t matter much in the overall delegate battle between Clinton and Sanders (Democrats award delegates proportionally), it could highlight the challenges ahead for Clinton in a potential match up with Trump. In exit polls of West Virginia, a third of those who voted in the Democratic contest said they planned to back Trump in November.
Part of Clinton's challenge may stem from comments she made at a town hall meeting in Ohio, when the Democratic front-runner said she would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." She would later apologize.

Meantime, Clinton now rarely mentions Sanders in her stump speeches, making clear that her chief target is Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, whom she’s portraying as a “loose cannon.” Separately, the main super PAC supporting her, Priorities USA, is planning to begin $6 million in anti-Trump ads starting on Wednesday.

Other high-profile Democrats have also stepped in to do battle with Trump.
After a commencement address on Saturday at Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Trump “a truly dangerous man.” Warren has also engaged in heated Twitter exchanges with Trump. On Sunday, President Obama, who’s largely stayed on the sidelines until a nominee is official, waded into the race during a commencement speech at Rutgers University.

“In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” he said, in an apparent reference to Trump. “That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you are talking about.’”

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Top News Stories of the day: Two bombings in Baghdad kill 44, say police, medical sources

A spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command told state television the attacker in al-Shaab, a predominately Shi'ite Muslim area, had set off an explosives-filled vest in coordination with a planted bomb. Initial investigations revealed the attacker had been a woman, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Islamic State h

as claimed bombings in and around the capital last week that killed 100 people and sparked popular anger against the government for failing to ensure security.

Two bombings hit Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 90, police and medical sources said, following the bloodiest week of attacks inside the capital so far this year.
A suicide bombing in a marketplace in the northern district of al-Shaab killed 38 people and wounded more than 70, while a car bomb in the southern neighborhood of al-Rasheed left six dead and another 21 wounded, the sources said.

Security has improved somewhat in the capital in recent years, even as Islamic State fighters seized swathes of the country almost to the outskirts of Baghdad's ramparts.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said a political crisis sparked by his attempt to reshuffle the cabinet in an anti-corruption bid was hampering the fight against Islamic State and creating space for more insurgent attacks on the civilian population.

But the prospect that the capital could return to the days when suicide bombings killed scores of people every week adds to pressure on Abadi to resolve the political crisis.

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Breaking News: Transgender bathroom rule a matter of dignity, Obama says

It was his first public comment on the issue since the Department of Education announced the new guidelines last Friday.

"Anybody who has been in school, in high school, who has been a parent should realize that kids who are sometimes in the minority — kids who have a different sexual orientation or are transgender — are subject to a lot of bullying, potentially," Obama told the web site Buzzfeed Monday.

New federal rules on school bathrooms are designed to protect transgender students from bullying, President Obama said Monday.

The federal guidance came the same week that the Department of Justice and North Carolina exchanged lawsuits over that state's new bathroom law. It requires people to use the public restrooms that correspond to the sex observed on their birth certificate.

"They are vulnerable, and I think it’s part of our obligation as a society to make sure everybody is treated fairly, and our kids are all loved and protected, and that their dignity is affirmed," he said.

 But the White House has also acknowledged that Obama was regularly consulted on the guidelines, and they reflect his own values. "I think it is fair to say — and I think it's important — that this kind of announcement reflects the President’s strongly held view about the need to prevent discrimination, but also the need to protect the safety and dignity of every student in America," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said last week.

The new guidelines require schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom and locker rooms that correspond to their chosen gender. And by invoking the sex discrimination law known as Title IX, the rules carry with them the threat of federal enforcement — including a loss of federal education funds. A number of state-level Republican officials have called the move federal overreach that violates the right of each state to determine education policy.

" We said it is our view that you should treat these kids with dignity," Obama said. "Ultimately, depending on how these other lawsuits go, courts will affirm or reject how we see the issue."
Obama said that guidance came from the Department of Education in response to questions from schools about how to handle the bathroom accommodations, and was an effort to advise school districts on "best practices" on a range of transgender issues.

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China scrambles fighters as U.S. sails warship near Chinese-claimed reef

China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.

Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Bill Urban said.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.

"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.

China and the United States have traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamations and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.

Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.

China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.

The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.

"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.

SENSITIVE AREA

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.

"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam later this month."

Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.

"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?," Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.

China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.

U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines claimed 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.

A tough-talking city mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday. He has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.

A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.



Source: Reuters

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Trump Won't Rule Out Effort to Remove Ryan as Convention Chairman

Donald J. Trump will not rule out an effort to remove Paul D. Ryan as chairman of the Republican National Convention if he does not endorse Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

Mr. Trump stopped short of calling for Mr. Ryan, the speaker of the House, to step down from his convention role. But in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump said there could be consequences in the event that Mr. Ryan continues withholding his support.
“I will give you a very solid answer, if that happens, about one minute after that happens, okay?” Mr. Trump said. “There’s no reason to give it right now, but I’ll be very quick with the answer.”

Mr. Trump has shown little interest over the last few days in placating his critics inside the party, including Mr. Ryan. The Wisconsin lawmaker said on Thursday that he was not ready to endorse Mr. Trump, citing reservations about his political style and policy agenda. The two men are scheduled to meet privately in Washington next week.

But on “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump struck a dismissive pose toward Mr. Ryan – and responded with outright hostility to other Republican critics who have refused to back his campaign.

Jeb Bush, he said, was “not honorable” for breaking his promise to endorse the party’s nominee. Mitt Romney, he said, was “ungrateful” for the help Mr. Trump gave him in the 2012 election. Mr. Trump referred to Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who said Friday he would never vote for Mr. Trump, as “this lightweight.”

Of Mr. Ryan, he said, “I’d like to have his support. But if he doesn’t want to support me, that’s fine, and we have to go about it.”

Asked about Mr. Trump’s remarks on the convention, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Ryan, replied, “The speaker looks forward to meeting with Mr. Trump on Thursday.”

Other allies of Mr. Trump have gone further in criticizing Mr. Ryan for declining to issue an immediate endorsement.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, predicted in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Mr. Ryan would be “Cantored,” a reference to former Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who was in line to be speaker of the House before losing re-election in a Republican primary in 2014.








Source: msn

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Hillary Clinton Targets Republicans Turned Off by Donald Trump

After a year of staking out liberal positions and focusing largely on minority voters, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is re-positioning itself to appeal to independent and Republican-leaning white voters turned off by the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump.

With the Democratic nomination in sight, Mrs. Clinton has broadened her economic message, devoted days to apologizing for a comment she previously made that angered working-class whites, and has pledged that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who remains widely popular among the blue-collar voters drawn to Mr. Trump, would “come out of retirement and be in charge” of creating jobs in places that have been particularly hard hit.

he move comes at a time when the Republican Party is publicly grappling with whether to embrace its unconventional nominee. The House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, on Thursday said he was “just not ready” to back Mr. Trump.

As Mrs. Clinton talks to voters, her campaign is trying to gain endorsements from influential Republican leaders, including former elected officials and retired generals, who can help convince voters that she is their best alternative to Mr. Trump — a striking turn after Mrs. Clinton spent the past year trying to mobilize the liberal wing and labor leaders in the Democratic Party.

But her campaign, confident that the young people and liberals backing Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will come around to support Mrs. Clinton in November, is focusing its efforts on white working-class women and suburban women who tend to vote for Republican presidential candidates, but who polls show hold negative views of Mr. Trump.

“I’m here because I want you to know whether people vote for me or not, whether they yell at me or not, it’s not going to affect what I will do to help,” Mrs. Clinton told residents at a health clinic here on Monday, as protesters’ chants outside of “Hillary, go home!” could be heard.

Mrs. Clinton’s two-day swing across Appalachia this week served as the beginning of the campaign’s full-court press to convince persuadable white voters that she would run a more inclusive campaign than Mr. Trump — and to signal that she would cede no demographic group to him.

“I invite a lot of Republicans and independents who I’ve been seeing on the campaign trail, who’ve been reaching out to me, I invite them to join with Democrats,” Mrs. Clinton told CNN on Wednesday. “Let’s get off the red or the blue team. Let’s get on the American team.”

In the Democratic primary, Mrs. Clinton has struggled with non-college-educated white voters and self-identified independents, often losing those groups by wide margins to Mr. Sanders. But faced with the choice between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump, 51 percent of independents and 59 percent of moderates favor the former secretary of state, compared with 41 percent and 39 percent for Mr. Trump, according to the most recent CNN/ORC poll.

“If the primary happened to be over already, we feel the coalition we’ve built has the makings of a winning coalition as it is in a general election,” said Brian Fallon, a Clinton spokesman. “But,” he added, “we’re not satisfied with that. We want to make inroads even with populations that aren’t supporting her in great numbers.”

Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who is supporting Mrs. Clinton, said while campaigning with her at a diner in Athens, Ohio, on Tuesday that the suburban women in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati could ultimately decide the November election. “I think educated suburban white women, to be sure, are going to be turned off en masse and there will be more of that,” he said.

But if Mrs. Clinton’s “Breaking Down Barriers Tour” in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia this week provided a road map for her campaign’s strategy in the weeks ahead, the antagonistic reception she received also highlighted her own vulnerabilities and tendency to divide and incite people — weaknesses Mr. Trump plans to exploit.

At Mrs. Clinton’s event in Athens, a protester, Peter Schmidt, 34 and a miller, held a handmade sign that read “I’d Rather Be Home Reading Your Goldman Sachs Transcripts,” a reference to the paid speeches she delivered to the Wall Street bank. Mr. Schmidt said her tour of Appalachia felt like pandering. “I don’t trust her,” he said. “That’s why I’m holding this sign.”

Mr. Trump, who has proved adept in connecting with white working-class men, also plans to hit Mrs. Clinton on her previous support for global trade deals that many Americans blame for jobs moving overseas. He has giddily seized on a comment she made to CNN in March that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

The backlash over that remark — made in the context of replacing coal with clean energy jobs — turned Mrs. Clinton’s campaign events into an Appalachian apology tour, as she was repeatedly, and pointedly, forced to explain what she called a “misstatement.”

“I can’t take it back,” Mrs. Clinton told one out-of-work coal industry worker, Bo Copley, 39, a father of three and a registered Republican, when he emotionally confronted her about the comment. “What I want you to know is I’m going to do everything I can to help no matter what happens politically,” she added. “That is just how I am made.”

The Clinton campaign is also moving to exploit the public criticism of Mr. Trump by prominent Republicans.

On Wednesday, the campaign released an online ad that quotes Mr. Trump’s former primary opponents describing him as a “know-nothing candidate,” “a narcissist” and “the most vulgar person ever to aspire to the presidency,” among other epithets.

Priorities USA Action, a “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, intends to reach out to Republican mega donors disillusioned by their party’s presumptive nominee.

Mrs. Clinton has portrayed Mr. Trump as a “loose canon” on foreign policy and often points to her husband’s record as evidence that she would help blue-collar voters. “The brilliance of Bill Clinton gives her a particular edge,” said Gaston Caperton, a Democratic former governor of West Virginia who supports Mrs. Clinton.

Even with Mr. Clinton in its corner, the Clinton campaign does not expect to win voters like Mr. Copley, who said he is undecided but who generally fits Mr. Trump’s core demographic of supporters. But Mrs. Clinton hopes to make inroads with women like Mr. Copley’s wife, Lauren — voters whom Clinton aides call “megachurch moms” and describe as religious, Republican-leaning women who reject Mr. Trump.

Christine Matthews, a researcher who advises Republicans on how to win female voters, said that portraying Mr. Trump as dangerous on foreign policy could help Mrs. Clinton draw some Republican women whose most important issues are national security and terrorism. “Can she drive moms who have kids who think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is too scary a prospect and our country won’t be safe if he’s elected president?’ ” Ms. Matthews said. “You can imagine that attack ad in your head.”

Democrats acknowledge that the prospect of terrifying skeptical voters into supporting their candidate would not be the most inspirational campaign message.

It is a far bleaker appeal than Ronald Reagan’s message of American exceptionalism and Mr. Clinton’s promise to restore “the forgotten middle class,” both of which inspired white working-class voters to cross party lines.

But Mrs. Clinton’s pitch to Republicans reflects the grim political realities of 2016: More than half of the registered voters who said they would vote for Mrs. Clinton planned to do so in opposition to Mr. Trump, rather than in support of her candidacy, according to the CNN/ORC poll.

“Her bumper sticker for Republicans should be ‘Unified Against Trump’ or ‘Vote for the enemy. It’s important,’ ” said Ben Howe, a Republican and a contributing editor at the conservative online publication Red State, who posted the Clinton campaign’s #I'mWith Her slogan on Twitter after Mr. Trump’s decisive victory in Indiana.

Or, as Jan Franck, 65, a retiree in Charleston, W.Va., put it after hearing Mrs. Clinton speak on Tuesday: “She could be a sock puppet running against Donald Trump, and I’d vote for her.”

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Obama scolds media about ‘reality show’ Trump coverage

President Obama warns the media against covering the Trump campaign like a reality show. (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Pres. Barack Obama scolded the media on Friday over its coverage of Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign, entreating reporters to skip “the spectacle and the circus” of the 2016 race.

He urged reporters to instead dig into the candidates’ positions on the economy and the military. As if on cue, he was then asked about the bombastic entrepreneur’s tweet about a taco bowl.

“We are in serious times and this is a really serious job. This is not entertainment, this is not a reality show,” Obama admonished in the White House briefing room. “This is a contest for the presidency of the United States.”

The president went on to take a number of indirect shots at Trump. He said reporters need to apply “genuine scrutiny” about whether candidates offer up “completely implausible” policies or “take a position on international issues that could threaten war or has the potential of upending our critical relationships with other countries or would potentially break the financial system.”
“What I’m concerned about is the degree to which reporting and information starts emphasizing the spectacle and the circus. Because that’s not something we can afford,” he said.

Obama highlighted a debate inside the Republican Party about what it represents, reflecting unease in some parts of the GOP that “their standard bearer at the moment is Donald Trump.” He suggested that Republican women and fiscal hawks should be uncomfortable voting for the wealthy reality show star.

Another reporter later asked if Obama had seen Trump’s Cinco de Mayo tweet of himself eating a taco bowl. The tweet sparked a social media firestorm Thursday afternoon.

Obama sidestepped with evident annoyance.

“I have no thoughts on Mr. Trump’s tweets. As a general rule, I don’t pay attention to Mr. Trump’s tweets,” he replied. “And I think that will be true for, I think, for the next six months. So, if you could just file that one.”

The president also declined to weigh in substantively on whether Sen. Bernie Sanders should concede the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, who holds a wide lead. “Just let the process play out,” he said.

Obama said “everybody starts getting a little chippy” at this point in the primaries, but Democrats have “a pretty strong consensus” on core issues and only “disagreements about tactics.”

“In terms of the Democratic votes coming up, I’m going to let the voters cast their ballots, and not, you know, not try to meddle in the few primaries that are remaining,” he said. “We will know soon enough. It’s not going to be that much longer.”


Source: Yahoo News

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Trump, lone survivor in Republican White House race, now must unify party

WASHINGTON, Donald Trump on Wednesday became the last man standing in the race for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination and faced the challenge of repairing deep fissures in the party, as his sole remaining rival, John Kasich, ended his campaign.

Anointed the presumptive nominee after winning Indiana on Tuesday and driving his closest rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, from the race, the 69-year-old New York billionaire planned to set up a vice presidential selection committee and step up efforts to seek unity among a wider group of Republicans ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Trump's win in Indiana cleared the way for him to prepare for a likely general election match-up against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state lost the Indiana primary to tenacious challenger U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, but remains on course to become her party's nominee.

Trump told NBC News he would probably work with the Republican National Committee to raise about $1 billion for the general election campaign.

Kasich, the Ohio governor, had stayed in the race in hopes of persuading Republicans to choose him as the nominee at a contested convention in July. He ended his campaign as a clear path emerged for Trump to amass the delegates needed to secure the nomination outright.

"As I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith, deeper faith that the Lord will show me the way forward and fulfill the purpose of my life," Kasich said in Columbus, the Ohio state capital.

Some Republican leaders said they would support Trump since he would be the nominee, stressing the importance of defeating Clinton in the general election. But there was no mad rush to support him as is typically the case when a presumptive nominee is crowned.

Former President George W. Bush, whose brother Jeb was defeated by Trump in the primary campaign, made clear he was staying out of the race. "President Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign," said his spokesman, Freddy Ford.

A similar statement was issued by the spokesman for Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. "At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics,” spokesman Jim McGrath said.

John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, said he would support Trump. McCain is a U.S. senator from Arizona who is seeking re-election this year and was insulted by Trump last year.

"As John McCain has said, he will support the nominee of the Republican Party, who is now presumptively Donald Trump," said McCain's Senate campaign spokeswoman, Lorna Romero.



Source: Reuters

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Islamic State kills U.S. serviceman in northern Iraq

Islamic State militants killed a U.S. serviceman in northern Iraq on Tuesday after blasting through Kurdish defences and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said.

The dead man was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to "degrade and destroy" the jihadist group, and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict.

"It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters during a trip to Germany.

A U.S. defense official said the dead man was a Navy SEAL. The SEALs are considered to be among the most able U.S. special operations forces and capable of taking on dangerous missions.

A senior official within the Kurdish peshmerga forces facing Islamic State in northern Iraq said the man had been killed near the town of Tel Asqof, around 28 kilometres (17 miles) from the militant stronghold of Mosul.

The Islamic State insurgents occupied the town at dawn on Tuesday but were driven out later in the day by the peshmerga. A U.S. military official said the coalition had helped the peshmerga with air support from F-15 jets and drones.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man was killed "by direct fire" from Islamic State.

Carter's spokesman, Peter Cook, said the incident took place during an Islamic State attack on a peshmerga position some 3-5 km behind the forward line.

SNIPERS AND SUICIDE BOMBERS

Such Islamic State incursions are rare in northern Iraq, where the Kurdish peshmerga have pushed the militants back with the help of coalition air strikes and set up defensive lines that the militants are rarely able to breach.

The leader of a Christian militia deployed alongside peshmerga in Tel Asqof said the insurgents had used multiple suicide bombers, some driving vehicles laden with explosives, to penetrate peshmerga lines.

The Kurdistan Region Security Council said at least 25 Islamic State vehicles had been destroyed on Tuesday and more than 80 militants killed. At least 10 peshmerga also died in the fighting, according to a Kurdish official who posted pictures of the victims on Twitter.

The peshmerga also deflected Islamic State attacks on the Bashiqa front and in the Khazer area, about 40 km west of the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, Kurdish military sources said.

In mid-April the United States announced plans to send an additional 200 troops to Iraq, and put them closer to the front lines of battle to advise Iraqi forces in the war against Islamic State.

Last month, an Islamic State attack on a U.S. base killed Marine Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin and wounded eight other Americans providing force protection fire to Iraqi army troops.

The Islamist militants have been broadly retreating since December, when the Iraqi army recaptured Ramadi, the largest city in the western region. Last month, the Iraqi army retook the nearby region of Hit, pushing the militants further north along the Euphrates valley.

But U.S. officials acknowledge that the military gains against Islamic State are not enough.

Iraq is beset by political infighting, corruption, a growing fiscal crisis and the Shi'ite Muslim-led government's fitful efforts to seek reconciliation with aggrieved minority Sunnis, the bedrock of Islamic State support.



Source: msn

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