“In Iraq, we have about 3,500 troops at six locations in support of Iraqi Security Forces, or ISF”, notes Carter in his opening statement. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any Iraqi casualties.
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Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the USA military in Baghdad, tells reporters at the Pentagon that despite these losses, IS defenders still hold much of central Ramadi.
In addition to its strategic significance, Ramadi, located 75 miles west of Baghdad in the Sunni heartland, has symbolic importance in Iraq’s fight against ISIS.
Iraqi forces cemented their hold on newly gained territory in Ramadi on Wednesday, after scoring a breakthrough in their fight against the Islamic State group by retaking a large part of the city.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi vowed to retake the city within days, but the counter-offensive was delayed until Iraqi forces regrouped.
“The reality is we’re at war”.
Adam Szubin, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, right, accompanied by Andrew Natsios, the president’s Special Envoy for Sudan, gestures during a press briefing on Darfur and the USA imposed sanctions, Tuesday, May 29, 2007, at the State Department in Washington.
That’s a strategy that the United States moved decisively toward in October, when it announced it would send dozens of special operations forces to Syria to coordinate with rebels.
But even as Carter and Selva highlighted progress made against the terrorist group, Selva said that 40 percent of USA war planes return each day without having struck targets in Iraq or Syria.
And yet the slow, grinding, but increasingly successful struggle of the Iraqi government and its allies against Daesh in the major city of Ramadi has been curiously slighted on United States television news.
But leaving isn’t necessarily easy.
Several residents said that although they longed to be rid of Daesh, they feared they would be accused of supporting the militants if the city is recaptured. That didn’t yield immediate results.
Haimour added that according to reports he received, about two months ago IS fighters began moving their families out of Ramadi and toward the town of Hit northwest of Ramadi. But unless the Iraqi government becomes more inclusive and politics successfully with Iraqi Sunnis (and spends some of its billions in oil income to rebuild their cities), then radicalization will remain a threat. Others say they feel like slaves and are so hungry they’ll soon be forced to eat their own pets. But that the government will win in Ramadi over time seems assured.
Baghdad’s forces have been fighting for months to close in around Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and took a large part of the key city on Tuesday.
The Tikrit campaign had been a military success but a political failure, since it was mainly spearheaded by Shiite militias, who committed reprisals once they took that city. Turkey has said the troops are there to protect a mission to train and advise Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.
The battle to retake the city however continues.
In Iraq, there are also setbacks.
The Iraqi armed forces also said they had carried out air strikes on various locations in Anbar province, making use of new hardware.
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His former Army chief, retired Gen. Raymond Odierno, said Wednesday that the only way to defeat the Islamic State is to inject a ground force of 2,000 or so troops.
