ELMAU, Germany (AP) — The United States does not yet have a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants, President Barack Obama said Monday amid signs of weakness in Iraq’s military.
Obama said the Pentagon was reviewing plans to ramp up training and assistance to the Iraqi forces, but he also said there must be full commitment by the Iraqis themselves. He said that while there had been progress in fighting the Islamic State, the militants are aggressive and opportunistic in seeking to expose weaknesses and bolster their gains.
The president spoke at a news conference marking the close of a two-day summit with Group of Seven leaders at a resort in the Bavarian Alps. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was among the non-G-7 leaders invited to attend part of the summit to discuss the security challenges in his country.
Obama and Abadi met one-on-one shortly before the president’s news conference.
The president also weighed in for the first time on last week’s massive hack into the computerized personnel files of more than 4 million current and former U.S. government employees. He said that “very old systems” used by the U.S. government have contributed to leaving agencies vulnerable to possible cyberattacks.
“Both state and non-state actors are sending everything they’ve got at trying to breach these systems,” Obama said as he wrapped up two days of talks with world leaders in Germany.
The president did not comment on who was behind the attack, though U.S. officials have said it appears to have originated in China.
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