WASHINGTON, Aug 16 : Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton returned fire on Saturday at her Republican rival Jeb Bush's claim that a "premature" US pullout from Iraq fuelled the rise of the Islamic State group.
Hillary served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama during the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS).
In 2002, while serving as a US senator from New York, Hillary voted in favour of authorizing the invasion of Iraq ordered by Bush's brother and then-president George W. Bush.
With the war dragging into a protracted, costly and unpopular conflict, she later called her decision a mistake.
"I find it somewhat curious that Jeb Bush is doubling down on defending his brother's actions in Iraq," Hillary said on the campaign trail in Iowa.
"If he's going to do that, he needs to present the entire picture," she argued.
"And the entire picture as you know, includes the agreement that George W. Bush made with the (Nuri al-) Maliki government in Iraq that set the end of 2011 as the date to withdraw American troops."
On Tuesday, Jeb Bush blamed Hillary for allowing the brutal emergence of IS by withdrawing troops from Iraq too fast.
"That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that (Islamic State) moved in to fill," he told a crowd in California.
"Rushing away from danger can be every bit as unwise as rushing into danger, and the costs have been grievous."    ?AFP