In recent days, Iraqi forces advanced on Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, retaking a military operations center and a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.
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The advance was hailed as a significant step in efforts to retake Ramadi, a key IS hub 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and fragment the jihadists’ self-proclaimed “caliphate”. The push placed Iraqi forces along the southwest edge of Ramadi in the Tamim neighborhood and north of the city, at the former Anbar operations command.
Iraq’s security forces have seized a key foothold inside Ramadi and are preparing a final assault to clear remaining Islamic State militants out of the key western Iraq city, USA officials said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that he has not recommended sending US ground combat forces to the Middle East to fight the Islamic State in part because it would “Americanize” the conflict there.
“When Ramadi fell in May, it was the last time we saw Daesh take offensive action here in Iraq in any sort of concerted way”, said Brett McGurk, the official in charge of the US-led coalition against Daesh, speaking to reporters Wednesday from the United States embassy in Baghdad.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the U.S. strategy to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the U.S. policy toward Iraq and Syria, in Washington D.C., the United States, Dec. 9, 2015. Retaking it would be a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. And U.S. Special Forces recently ordered to Iraq and Syria by President Barack Obama create “force multipliers” based on their capabilities in intelligence gathering, targeting and enabling local forces, he added.
“You can’t defeat ISIS without having people on the ground”, Odierno, who retired in August, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.
“If we fall into the trap of radical Islamic violent extremists baiting us into a ground fight, we’re actually doing exactly what they want us to do”, Selva said.
The Pentagon early this month expanded the Obama administration’s overseas deployment plan to include Iraq, saying that a new USA specialized operations force of about 100 was being deployed to Iraq.
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Carter acknowledged that the “Sunni Arab combined force” discussed at a Camp David summit in the spring “has not materilized”, but suggested Sunni forces could work at “enabling local forces”. Residents have said the militants have prevented them from fleeing. Carter said the Senate has slow-walked 16 nominees – some since March – including open positions for the secretary of the Army and undersecretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
