US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Islamic State's momentum in Iraq had been halted or reversed and that US weapons for government forces would be arriving very shortly.
"In recent months we have seen definitively ... momentum halted in Iraq and in some cases reversed," Kerry told a London news conference after a meeting of the US-led coalition fighting IS.
"Ground forces supported by nearly 2,000 air strikes now have reclaimed some 700 square kilometers," he said, adding that Iraqi forces would be getting lots of US-made M16 rifles "very, very shortly."
"There is an (arms) pipeline here, and it is working," he said.