But he said it marks a new turn in tactics aimed at diverting attention from the group’s recent battlefield losses.
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Votel spoke to reporters Wednesday while his military aircraft was being refueled at Ramstein for his flight to the Middle East. “In this regard, some of the attacks we’re seeing in Baghdad – I think we are seeing a manifestation of that”. The general called some of the Baghdad attacks a manifestation of ISIL’s ability to see and take advantage of opportunities that they believe will cause the Iraqi government to divert resources from the Iraqi security forces who are taking terrain from ISIL and steadily making progress against the terrorist army.
Warren said ISIS has lost about 45 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and 20 percent of the land it once did in Syria. Joseph Votel, who was in Iraq on Friday to consult with MacFarland and other US commanders.
In Syria, he said, “we don’t have a government partner, frankly, and we are relying much more on indigenous forces that aren’t necessarily linked back to a centralized government to help us achieve our objective”.
The Islamic State has managed to pull off those attacks even though, according to Pentagon estimates, Iraq has already deployed half of its army and police in and around the capital.
Asked whether he was anxious that political unrest in Baghdad, which has left the Iraqi parliament in limbo for weeks, might be a hindrance to further Iraqi military progress, Votel said, “There is a little concern” that it could divert Iraq’s focus from objectives like retaking Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
The US-led coalition, which provided air support for the Rutba operation, stopped short of saying the town was under the full control of Iraqi forces.
The two major cities still under jihadist rule are Fallujah, which lies only 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, and Mosul, the capital of Nineveh.
Reuters via HandoutA banner belonging to the Islamic court of the Islamic State is seen on the ground after forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad recaptured Palmyra city, in HomsUS officials announced this week that ISIS has lost more territory in Iraq and Syria as the global effort to take back land the terrorist group seized continues.
Warren said Iraqi troops recently pushed a few hundred ISIS fighters out of Rutbah, a city in Anbar province in western Iraq along a highway leading to Jordan, roughly 80 miles from the border.
The Iraqi army, federal police and Sunni tribal fighters are also participating in the offensive, which began on Monday when those forces began approaching Rutba from multiple directions. Late last month, supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the Green Zone, the hub of government activity in Baghdad, only pulling out on Sadr’s orders. The deadliest of the recent attacks were triple vehicle bombings that hit Baghdad last Thursday, killing at least 94 people, while attacks in three areas of the city on Tuesday killed at least 48 more.
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Warren said the recent ISIS bombings have not impacted American or Iraqi forces fighting ISIS.
