WASHINGTON, August 12. /ITAR-TASS/. The United States has shipped weapons directly to the Kurdish forces battling militants of the Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq and is considering ways to expand the transfer of arms, US officials told CNN.

“We’re working with the government of Iraq to increasingly and very quickly get urgently needed arms to the Kurds,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told CNN’s New Day on Monday. "We’ve seen a really unprecedented level of cooperation between the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga and the Kurds,” she added.

Harf said the United States would further provide assistance to the Kurds and Iraqi authorities. She added such efforts are being made in “full coordination” with the government in Baghdad.