(BAGHDAD, Iraq) — On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that a number of nations, in addition to the U.S., will commit to providing aid to Kurdish forces in need of arms and equipment in the battle against militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Hagel commissioned a working group about two weeks ago in an effort to resupply the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. Among the foreign nations now committed to supplying aid are Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Italy, France and the United Kingdom.
Operations involving aid from those seven nations “have already begun,” Hagel said Tuesday, “and will accelerate in the coming days with more nations also expected to contribute.”
Hagel also praised “the determination of the Iraqi people and the international community to counter the threat posed by [ISIS].”
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