克里抵巴格達商討應對伊斯蘭國問題

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting in Baghdad with the new Iraqi government to help coordinate the fight against Islamic State militants.

Kerry, who is beginning a week-long tour in the region, landed early Wednesday in the Iraqi capital, where he will meet with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The U.S. hopes the new government can unite Iraq, unlike its previous leaders, who were blamed for marginalizing the Sunni minority and helping give rise to extremists.

Kerry's talks come ahead of a Wednesday speech in which President Barack Obama will lay out his strategy to deal with the extremist group, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.

White House officials have given no specifics on what Mr. Obama plans to say. The president has already ruled out sending U.S. forces back into Iraq.

On Tuesday the president briefed Democratic and Republican leaders from both houses of Congress on his plan.

The United States has already carried out 153 airstrikes on Islamic State targets inside Iraq, and U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of expanding that campaign.

Ahead of his trip, Kerry said the U.S. is trying to form a broad global coalition to "confront, degrade and ultimately defeat" the Islamic State group.美國國務卿克里將在巴格達與伊拉克新政府商討幫助協調對抗伊斯蘭國激進分子的問題。

克里星期三清晨抵達伊拉克首都巴格達，開始爲期一週的中東之行，他將會晤伊拉克總理阿巴迪。

美國希望伊拉克新政府能把伊拉克團結起來。前伊拉克領導人將遜尼派少數羣體邊緣化，加速了極端分子的崛起。

在克里出訪之際，美國總統奧巴馬星期三將發表講話，闡述應對伊斯蘭國的戰略。伊斯蘭國控制着伊拉克和敘利亞的部分地區。

白宮官員沒有透露奧巴馬總統星期三的講話內容。奧巴馬已經排除了向伊拉克派遣軍隊的可能性。

星期二，奧巴馬向國會兩院的民主黨及共和黨領導人概要說明了他的計劃。

美國已對伊拉克境內的伊斯蘭國目標發動了153次空襲，同時美國官員討論了擴大空襲行動的可能性。

克里在啓程之前說，美國正在爭取建立一個廣泛的全球聯盟，以“對抗、削弱並最終戰勝”這個極端組織。