Iraqi premier: France offers to strike militants

Iraq's new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says France has agreed to take part in airstrikes as part of an expanding international effort to target the positions of militants with the Islamic State group. Al-Abadi, speaking on Friday at a press conference in Baghdad alongside French President Francois Hollande, did not provide details about when any such aerial campaign would begin. Hollande says France has delivered four arms shipments and 60 metric tons (66 tons) of humanitarian equipment to Iraq. Hollande's trip and a conference that Paris is hosting Monday on Iraq are the first steps in a long-term effort to bolster the new Iraqi government and weaken Islamic State militants, who have seized much of Iraq's north and west, according to AP.