The top US military officer says the Pentagon lacks sufficient intelligence to launch airstrikes against al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday confirmed that Baghdad has asked Washington for air support in countering the militants of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," Dempsey told a Senate hearing in Washington.
Asked whether Washington should honor the request, he said, "It is in our national security interest to counter ISIL wherever we find them."
But he added that the US lacks intelligence to take action, saying that without clear intelligence the US military would have difficulty knowing who it would be attacking from the air.
"And until we can actually clarify this intelligence picture, the options will continue to be built and developed and refined and the intelligence picture made more accurate and then the president can make a decision," he said.
"It's not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then striking it," said Dempsey, who once commanded the training of the Iraqi military and police.
The ISIL militants have taken control of some key northern Iraqi cities including Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and Tikrit, the birthplace of former Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein.
The militants, who have posted pictures of their atrocious acts against Iraqis online, have vowed to continue their offensive towards the capital Baghdad but Iraqi armed forces have advanced toward their strongholds.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that the country’s security forces would confront the terrorists, calling Mosul seizure a “conspiracy."
He has blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the crisis and growing terrorism in his country, denouncing Riyadh as a major supporter of global terrorism.
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama was meeting senior members of Congress to discuss the Iraq crisis.
On Friday, Obama said he was reviewing military options to help the Iraqi government fight the militants. Next day, the Pentagon ordered three warships to move into the Persian Gulf to provide Obama with options should he decide to launch airstrikes against the militants.
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