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ByLaraJakes The Associated Press WASHINGTON TheObama administration has begun directly providing weap- ons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday, but the aid has so far been lim- ited to automatic rifles and ammunition. Previously, the U.S. sold arms in Iraq only to the government in Baghdad, which has largely failed in recent years to transfer them to the Kurdish forces in the north, American of- ficials have said. Baghdad made some transfers with American help in recent days, since U.S. airstrikes began to support Kurdish forces fighting off the Is- lamic State advance toward the northern city of Irbil. But U.S. officials decided to begin their own deliver- ies. The Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks, in part because they were outgunned and at times ran out of ammunition, officials said. The weapons appeared to be coming through intelli- gence agencies covertly and not through regular De- fense Department channels. The officials wouldn't say which U.S. agency is provid- ing the arms, but one offi- cial said it isn't the Penta- gon. A Kurdish official said the weapons were com- ing from "U.S. intelligence agencies," and a senior Pen- tagon official said the De- fense Department may yet get involved. The CIA has historically done similar quiet arming operations. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity be- cause they were not autho- rized to discuss the opera- tion publicly. The move to directly aid the Kurds underscores the level of U.S. concern about the Islamic State militants' gains in the north, and re- flects the persistent ad- ministration view that the Iraqis must take the neces- sary steps to solve their own security problems. By providing military equipment directly to the Kurds, who want to be in- dependent from Iraq, the Obama administration is cementing the Iraqi Kurd- ish claim as an independent U.S. partner. For now, how- ever, U.S. officials say they still support a unified Iraq under a federal government in Baghdad. In Washington, Lt. Gen. William Mayville, the di- rector of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the U.S. had conducted 15 targeted air strikes that have slowed the Islamic State's advance. But he said the limited opera- tion has done little to de- grade the militants' capac- ity as a fighting force. "In the immediate areas where we've focused our strikes we've had a very temporary effect," Mayville said. "I in no way want to suggest that we have effec- tively contained—or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of the threat posed by—" the Islamic state group. Nonetheless, Mayville said, "There are no plans to expand the current air campaign," to target Is- lamic state leaders or lo- gistical hubs, beyond the Kurdish plan. "We are looking at plans and how we can expand that support," Mayville said, adding that the Kurds need ammunition and some heavy weapons that are ef- fective against the Islamic state's "technical vehicles" and longer range guns. The Kurdish govern- ment official said Monday the U.S. weapons already are being directly sent to Irbil —where U.S. person- nel are based_mostly con- sist of light arms like AK- 47s and ammunition. The State Department sought to downplay the significance of the appar- ent shift in U.S. policy. The militants have "ob- tained some heavy weap- onry, and the Kurds need additional arms and we're providing those — there's nothing new here," said de- partment spokeswoman Jen Psaki. But Mayville did not dispute the policy shift. He said the government in Baghdad had provided some weapons to the Kurds in recent days, but he said the need was so great that the U.S. government had to get involved. INSURGENCY United States sending arms to Kurds in Iraq KHALIDMOHAMMED—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Kurdish Peshmerga fighters walk toward the front line with militants from the extremist Islamic State group, at the Khazer checkpoint outside of the city of Irbil in northern Iraq, on Friday. By Vivian Salama The Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraq's president snubbed incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and picked another politi- cian to form the next gov- ernment Monday, setting up a fierce political power struggle even as the coun- try battles extremists in the north and west. The showdown came as the United States in- creased its role in fight- ing back Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group that is threatening the au- tonomous Kurdish region in the north. Senior Amer- ican officials said U.S. in- telligence agencies are di- rectly arming the Kurds who are battling the mil- itants in what would be a shift in Washington's pol- icy of only working through the central government in Baghdad. U.S. warplanes carried out new strikes Sunday, hitting a convoy of Sunni militants moving to attack Kurdish forces defending the autonomous zone's cap- ital, Irbil. The recent Amer- ican airstrikes have helped the Kurds achieve one of their first victories after weeks of retreat as pesh- merga fighters over the weekend recaptured two towns near Irbil. The Pen- tagon's director of opera- tions said the effort will do little to slow Islamic State militants overall. Haider al-Ibadi, the dep- uty speaker of parliament from al-Maliki's Shiite Dawa party, was selected by President Fouad Mas- soum to be the new prime minister and was given 30 days to present a new gov- ernment to lawmakers for approval. Al-Maliki has defiantly rejected the nomination. In a speech after midnight Sunday, he accused Mas- soum of blocking his reap- pointment as prime min- ister and carrying out "a coup against the constitu- tion and the political pro- cess." In another speech broad- cast Monday night, al-Ma- liki insisted al-Ibadi's nom- ination "runs against the constitutional procedures" and he accused the United States of siding with polit- ical forces "who have vio- lated the constitution." "Today, we are facing a grave constitutional breach and we have appealed and we have the proof that we are the largest bloc," al-Ma- liki said. "We assure all the Iraqi people and the politi- cal groups that there is no importance or value to this nomination," he added. But despite angrily in- sisting he should be nom- inated for a third term, al-Maliki has lost some support with the main co- alition of Shiite parties. His critics say al-Maliki contributed to Iraq's polit- ical crisis by monopolizing power and pursuing a sec- tarian agenda that alien- ated the country's Sunni and Kurdish minorities. The nomination of al- Ibadi came hours after al- Maliki deployed his elite se- curity forces in the streets of Baghdad. Hundreds of his supporters were es- corted to a popular rally site by military trucks, raising fears that he might try to use force to stay in power. "We are with you, al-Ma- liki," they shouted, waving posters of him as they sang and danced. GOVERNMENT Showdown: Iraq's president picks new prime minister KARIM KADIM — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Shiite lawmaker Haider al-Ibadi speaks to the press a er an Iraqi Parliament session about the election law in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2009. Landscape/Fence Steve's Tractor &LandscapeService •FenceBuilding•Landscaping • Trenching • Rototilling • Disking • Mowing • Ridging • Post Hole Digging • Blade Work • Sprinkler Installation • Concrete Work Cont. 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