General Martin Dempsey, speaking to reporters on his plane en route to a visit to Bahrain and Iraq, said he would raise his concerns about Iran's influence in talks with Iraq's leaders – days after Baghdad launched a large-scale operation to recapture Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit from IS.
- The Shiite militias, armed and advised by Iran, are playing a major role in the Tikrit offensive which Dempsey was confident would succeed.
His visit comes at an intriguing stage of the war to force IS out of Iraq. Its fighters swept across much of the north and west of the country last summer and now control numerous key cities, including Tikrit.
The US and its allies have launched hundreds of airstrikes at IS targets since August and credits its attacks with halting the group’s territorial advances.
But in the Tikrit offensive, which began Monday, the US is on the sidelines, watching as Iran asserted influence by providing training, weapons and leadership for Iraqi Shiite militias who are leading the charge.
- Dempsey said he saw no evidence that the Iranian military was actually doing any of the fighting.
- But while the Iranians have improved the Iraqi militias’ fighting capabilities, their role also has raised worries among America’s coalition allies, who include Gulf Arab nations who despise Iran.
The general said that while Iran was getting credit for enabling the Tikrit offensive, the full story of how it was made possible had not been told and that “if it weren’t for the (US-led coalition) air campaign over time depleting the ISIL (or IS) forces in Beyji ... then the current campaign (in Tikrit) … would not be militarily feasible,” he said.
IS forces surged into Beyji, which lies just north of Tikrit, in hopes of controlling a key oil refinery there, but they were halted and tied down by a series of US airstrikes, Dempsey said.
That little-noted IS setback has divided and weakened its forces, he added.
“The important thing about this operation in Tikrit is less about how the military aspect of it goes and more about what follows,” Dempsey said.
The mostly Sunni population of Tikrit must be allow to returned to their homes, and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad must step in with reconstruction and humanitarian aid, he said.
If that happens, “then I think we’re in a really good place”, he said, adding that if it did not happen, then the future could be “problematic”.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
france24.com
7/3/15
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