The United States is encouraging Iraqi forces to move to retake the city of Ramadi from Islamic State militants “as quickly as possible” to deny them the chance to regroup, a US military spokesman said on Friday.
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It said that the agreement came in response to “Russia’s increasing concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russian Federation who are committing criminal acts with IS”.
The military setback has renewed concerns about the potential of Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad to overcome the sectarian divide that has helped fuel the militants’ expansion in Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
The center in Baghdad will open “in weeks, maybe less”, Nasir Nouri Mohammed, a spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said Sunday after the announcement of a security and intelligence pact linking the four countries. He said it would not change Iraq’s cooperation with other countries and the U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State.
Despite more than $20 billion in US aid and training, Iraq’s army has almost collapsed twice in the previous year in the face of advances by the IS, which controls large swathes of territory in the north and west of the OPEC oil producer.
Critics have urged U.S. President Barack Obama to be more decisive in the Middle-East, particularly towards the Syrian conflict, and say lack of a clear American policy has given the IS opportunities to expand.
The United States has protested the infusion of new arms to the Assad regime but Russian Federation maintains it is only honouring existing military contracts with Syria, a longstanding military ally going back to the days of President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president.
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Despite Pentagon reports that coalition strikes have killed about 10,000 Islamic State fighters, the group continues to replenish its ranks, drawing an average of about 1,000 fighters a month, the report said.
