Iraq’s post-Nouri al-Maliki government is likely to receive accelerated shipments of missiles, guns and ammunition, according to US officials.

Internal deliberations are said to continue within the Obama administration over the details and scope of a defense aid package to a yet-unformed successor government led by Haider al-Abadi, who will inherit a country under assault from the army of the Islamic State (Isis).



A State Department official said the administration has been “looking to see what we can accelerate”, adding that much depends on the composition of a new Iraqi government.

Obama administration deliberations are said to draw short, for now, of expanding US air strikes against Isis beyond the outskirts of Irbil and Mt Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis remain stranded. It is also unlikely that planned shipments of F-16 fighter jets will greet Abadi at the end of a 30-period mandated for the formation of a government.

Another 130 US troops arrived in Iraq on Tuesday on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis facing thousands of displaced civilians trapped on Mt Sinjar, Associated Press reported.

On Tuesday, support for Abadi coalesced in both Washington and Tehran, as Maliki appeared to back away from a tense Sunday deployment of armed loyalists throughout Baghdad. In Australia, US secretary of state John Kerry said America would explore additional “political, economic and security options” to bolster a fledgling government that Washington considers vital to defeating Isis.

The Obama administration has used a promise of intensified US military support to Iraq as inducement to divided Iraqi politicians to produce a government that can accommodate Sunni Iraqi aspirations and drain Isis of Sunni support. Officials are now working out the details of that package.

The White House declined to comment.

Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the US, told the Guardian that he was in “constant talks” with the administration about security cooperation, counterterrorism and humanitarian aid and military sales.

Expediting the sales, Faily said, “would help in the short and medium term”. But the ambassador reiterated a longstanding request for additional US airstrikes.

“Drastic and immediate actions are required to counter the imminent threat from [Isis], dealt in the fight is leading to more catastrophic human tragedies. Given the unfolding humanitarian crisis, broader and more intensive airstrikes can mitigate against further atrocities,” Faily said.

Since January, the Pentagon has been expediting sales of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, anti-tank rounds, small arms and ammunition, under the Foreign Military Sales program. Approximately 800 Hellfire missiles, which can be loaded onto the small Beechcraft and Cessna planes the Iraqi security forces possess, have been delivered since January, with 5,000 of them authorized for sale.

Unlikely to join them in the near term are the first complement of F-16 fighter jets that the US has long pledged to sell to Iraq. Maliki visited Washington in November and delivered an unsuccessful entreaty to acquire the planes. But the recent evacuation of US contractor personnel from Balad air base, a response to Isis’ presence in the area, has effectively put the program on hold. In the interim, Russia and perhaps Iran have sent Su-25 Frogfoot jets to Iraq.

Christopher Harmer, a former Navy officer now with the Institute for the Study of War, said the US could send older model F-16s or even A-10s to bolster the Iraqi air force.

“We’re going with a top-shelf solution to a bottom-shelf problem,” he said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the latest deployment of troops in remarks to Marines at Camp Pendleton, California, AP reported.

“This is not a combat boots on the ground kind of operation,” Hagel said. “We’re not going back into Iraq in any of the same combat mission dimensions that we once were in in Iraq.”

Hagel referred to the 130, who arrived in Irbil on Tuesday, as “assessors”. They are in addition to almost 800 advisers approved by Obama earlier in the summer.