The Baghdad government wants the immediate delivery of U.S. drones and F-16 fighter jets in order to combat al Qaeda insurgents, who are making swift advances in the west of the Iraq, a senior Iraqi security official said.
Washington agreed in August to supply a $2.6 billion integrated air defence system and F-16 fighter jets, with delivery due in autumn 2014.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who will meets U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington next week, has also requested drones to carry out surveillance of Iraq's desert border with Syria.
Al Qaeda's Iraqi wing was forced underground in 2007 during a troop build-up ordered by then U.S. President George W. Bush.
But almost two years after the last U.S. troops withdrew, the Sunni Islamist group has regained momentum in its war against the Shi'ite-led government that came to power after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Around 7,000 civilians have been killed in acts of violence so far in 2013, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count.
At the same time Baghdad is struggling to control spillover from the civil war next door in Syria.
Source: Reuters
