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By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Tuesday that its fighters must respect Iraq's sovereignty and answer to the government in Baghdad in the battle against Islamic State militants. Iran-backed Shi'ite militias have played a major and growing role in battling the Sunni Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot also known as ISIL, that emerged from the chaos in Iraq and neighboring Syria and which swept through northern Iraq last June. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has had to rely on Shi'ite militias, some of which are backed by Iran and advised by Iranian military officers, as Iraq's regular military deserted en masse last summer in the face of the Islamic State onslaught.
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