Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday that pro-government forces were not getting enough support from an international coalition helping Iraq battle Islamic State militants.

He spoke in Paris before meeting with coalition foreign ministers to discuss the strategy for fighting IS after the militant group’s recent gains.

The talks come two weeks after the Islamic State group seized Ramadi, the Anbar province capital 125 kilometers west of Baghdad, prompting Abadi to call on militias to rush to the area to take part in a counter offensive that launched last week.

A senior U.S. State Department official said there will be a focus on the prime minister getting Sunni tribal fighters to take part in the fight against the militants in the predominantly Sunni province.

Secretary of State John Kerry will take part in the meetings remotely after breaking his leg in a bicycle crash in France and returning home for treatment.  Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will lead the U.S. delegation as the coalition discusses the months-long broader efforts to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State group, including cutting off financing and the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria.

Islamic State militants drove a tank filled with explosives onto an Iraqi police base Monday, killing at least 37 people and injuring dozens more, Iraqi security officials said.

The suicide bombing near Samarra, northwest of Baghdad and north of IS-held Ramadi, targeted security forces and triggered a secondary explosion in an ammunition depot on the base.

Military and paramilitary forces are using the area as a launch point for anti-Islamic State operations.

Watch related video report from VOA’s Zlatica Hoke:

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