Abu Hasan never understood why the U.S. travel ban issued by the Trump administration in January included Iraq, which has been a key ally in the battle against Islamic State militants. “The order was wrong, wrong, wrong,” said the militia commander fighting alongside the Iraqi military to oust the extremist group from the city of Mosul. Ahmed Galadi, 30, a soldier with the Interior Ministry’s emergency response division in west Mosul, said the original ban was especially misguided when it came to Iraqis working with the Americans. He and his family had fled the city after Islamic State took over but returned in December and reopened the mosque, after the militants were driven out of his neighborhood. He said the U.S. should have stayed long enough after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to prevent Islamic State from forming.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 07, 2017 01:18 UTC