Presidential campaign heats up: Bush and Clinton clash over Iraq

Candidates for the 2016 presidential election Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton clashed over Iraq on Tuesday, each blaming the other for the instability in the country and the rise of the jihadist organization Islamic State, reports the Patria news agency.

Twelve years after President George W. Bush led the U.S. into a questionable conflict, his brother, a Republican candidate, accused Democrats of abandoning Iraq before completing the job of rebuilding the country.

According to Jeb Bush, the Obama administration, from which his Democratic rival and former Secretary of State hails, allowed the emergence of Islamic State by prematurely withdrawing American troops from Iraq.

"It was a catastrophic mistake," he said in a speech at the Reagan Library in California, condemning "blind rushing."

"Where was Clinton all that time?" he asked, noting that she visited Iraq only once while heading U.S. diplomacy, writes Index.