An Iraqi soldier patrols after clashes between Iraqi forces and Islamic State group fighters in Ramadi, Iraq, on November 20, 2015.
Advertisement
Regaining control of Ramadi would be a major success for the Iraqi forces, which have been criticized for allowing IS to over-run the city in May.
The United States is prepared to send attack helicopters and advisers to help the Iraqi army retake Ramadi, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Wednesday, as he called on US allies, particularly in the Gulf, to “step up” their efforts against the Islamic State before it stages another Paris-style terror attack.
The center of Ramadi remains under Islamic State control, but Rasool said the militants, which Iraqi intelligence estimates number between 250 and 300 fighters, are losing the initiative and suffering food and ammunition shortages after government forces cut their last supply line into the city last month.
“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.
Speaking in Baghdad, the top USA official in the global anti-IS coalition, Brett McGurk, said the presence of civilians in Ramadi will require a cautious approach as the operation moves forward.
“These things take time, Ramadi is a very hard environment”, he said, adding that it took US forces six months to “take and stabilize Ramadi” from al-Qaida, the Islamic State’s precursor.
In recent days, Iraqi forces have made progress towards recapturing the city – which is located about 90km (55 miles) to the west of Baghdad – including the retaking of a military operations centre and a suburban neighbourhood.
Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite fighters chant slogans as they gather at Udhaim dam, north of Baghdad March 1, 2015.
“The information that we have is that there are no civilians inside the city of Ramadi”, Noman said. It also demolished the Anbar operations command and fanned out into the city’s residential areas to set up less conspicuous centers of command.
McCain and other lawmakers on the panel demanded to know when the US expects forces to retake Raqqa and Mosul, but Carter and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul Selva, could not give a timeline.
Anthony Cordesman, a long-time Middle East defense expert at the Center for International Security Studies, says the commando force could be helpful if used as part of a broader US strategy for developing effective local ground forces in both Syria and Iraq. He noted that progress in Sunni areas of Iraq had also been “slow”.
“We will not destroy ISIL until Raqqa, the capital of the caliphate, falls”, Mr. McCain said. Residents have said the militants have prevented them from fleeing. “From the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them”.
Advertisement
She said it should be coupled with a ramping up of the effort to build indigenous ground forces in Iraq and Syria.
