This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria and Iraq reported on Saturday that it had carried out 27 strikes since early on Friday. News of the strikes came a day after the outgoing US defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, said more American ground troops might be needed in Iraq.

“I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops,” Hagel told CNN, referring to ongoing efforts to turn back Isis and intelligence or training requirements for the support of Iraqi forces.

“I would say we’re not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don’t know.”



There are already 4,500 US troops in Iraq, in training and advisory roles. Late last year, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told Congress US troops might have to take a larger role on the ground in Iraq.

Negotiations with Isis over Japanese and Jordanian hostages 'deadlocked' Read more

Also on Saturday, a Japanese minister said negotiations with Isis over the fates of a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot held hostage by the militants had become “deadlocked”.

The Combined Joint Task Force said that in Syria, targets near the border town of Kobani were attacked in eight of 10 raids. Ten of 17 strikes in Iraq were carried out near the oil city of Kirkuk.

It was reported on Saturday that Isis fighters had seized a small crude oil station near Kirkuk.

“We received a call from one of the workers saying dozens of Daesh fighters were surrounding the facility and asking workers to leave the premises. We lost contact and now the workers might be taken hostage,” an engineer from the North Oil Co told Reuters, using a derogatory acronym for Isis.



Isis attacked regional Kurdish forces southwest of Kirkuk on Friday, seizing some areas including parts of the Khabbaz oilfields. Kurdish peshmerga forces sought to push back Isise in further fighting near Khabbaz on Saturday, Kurdish military sources said.

Khabbaz is a small oilfield 12 miles southwest of Kirkuk with a maximum production capacity of 15,000 barrels per day. It was producing around 10,000 barrels per day before the attack.

Further south in Baghdad, two bombs in a central neighbourhood and a farming district south of the capital killed at least seven civilians, medics and police said. Two soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded close to an army patrol near Taji, a predominantly Sunni rural district north of Baghdad. At least 24 others were wounded in the explosions.

In Falluja in the western province of Anbar, hospital sources said five people, including two children, were killed during Iraqi army shelling of Isis positions. They said at least 44 others were wounded, including 19 civilians.

It is difficult to confirm reports from hospitals in the area, which is mostly controlled by Isis.