US still in search of Iraq plan

US President Barack Obama speaks to media during a bilateral meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during the G-7 summit. Photo / AP

Obama admission on training troops to tackle Isis comes six months into mission.

President Barack Obama has admitted that American forces still "don't have a complete strategy" for training Iraqi troops to stand their ground against Isis (Islamic State) fighters.

A year on since Isis swept across Iraq and Syria, and six months after the United States began re-training Iraqi forces following a series of high-profile battlefield defeats, much of Iraq's military still seems unable to match the intensity of the jihadist fighters.

Iraqi forces have performed so poorly in combat that Ash Carter, the US Secretary of Defence, said recently they "showed no will to fight" in defence of the key city of Ramadi.

Speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, Obama said yesterday that the US was "going to have to improve" training for Iraqi forces and left open the possibility of deploying more American military trainers.

He said the US military had not yet completed a plan for how to accelerate the training and equipping of Baghdad's forces.

"When a finalised plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people. We don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place."

His comments come ahead of the first anniversary of Isis' declaration of a caliphate. On June 29 last year, the group announced Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as its leader, or caliph.

In the past 12 months the group has shown a brutality that has shocked the world but has also managed to attract recruits through a sophisticated use of social media.

It has also proven to be a difficult force to defeat.

In the past year, the US and a coalition of allies have launched more than 4000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria but have been unable to prevent key cities falling to the jihadists.

Kurdish fighters have been among the most successful on the ground, defeating Isis in a long battle for the Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border.

Obama insisted that Iraqi forces "operate effectively" where they have been trained and equipped by the US. The US has trained around 7000 Iraqi soldiers in a series of six-week training camps but none of those 7000 were deployed in unsuccessful effort to defend Ramadi.

There are around 3000 American troops currently deployed in Iraq.

New Zealand has 143 troops in Iraq to help train Iraqi troops.