UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Friday called for expanded and stronger support for Iraqi forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants and other extremist groups.

In a statement issued late on Friday evening , the council said the IS must be fought with “all means,” and “the intolerance, violence, and hatred it espouses must be stamped out.”

“ISIL must be defeated,” the members of the Council declared in a press statement which condemned the vicious string of suicide, vehicle-borne, and other attacks perpetrated by IS terrorist in Baghdad and surrounding provinces over the past several days, “which have killed scores of Iraqis, including an elected member of parliament from Basrah province and the police chief of Anbar province.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014