“I don’t think we’re losing,” Obama said in an interview with news magazine The Atlantic published Thursday, days after the Iraqi city of Ramadi was overrun.
“There’s no doubt there was a tactical setback, although Ramadi had been vulnerable for a very long time,” he said.
- Since August 2014, on Obama’s orders, a U.S.-led coalition has hit more than 6,000 targets in Iraq and Syria with airstrikes, with the aim of degrading the Islamic State group.
But the rout in Ramadi has called into question US strategy and the credibility of Iraq’s central government.
Obama blamed it on a lack of training and reinforcement of Iraq’s own security forces.
“They have been there essentially for a year without sufficient reinforcements,” he said.
“But it is indicative that the training of Iraqi security forces, the fortifications, the command-and-control systems are not happening fast enough in Anbar, in the Sunni parts of the country.”
Ramadi is in Iraq’s minority Sunni heartland, a short drive from the capital Baghdad.
- Even with sustained U.S. airpower, many observers are skeptical the Iraqi army can win the war against the well trained and highly motivated ISIS.
The United States has pushed Iraq’s central government to enlist Sunni tribesmen in Ramadi’s Anbar province, something the Shiite-led government has been reluctant to do.
“There’s no doubt that in the Sunni area we’re going to have to ramp up not just training, but also commitment, and we better get Sunni tribes more activated than they currently have been.”
alarabiya.net
21/5/15
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Islamic State 'seizes last Syria-Iraq border crossing'...
ReplyDeleteIslamic State militants have seized the last Syrian government-controlled border crossing between Syria and Iraq, a Syrian monitoring group says.
Government forces withdrew from al-Tanf - known as al-Waleed in Iraq - crossing as IS advanced, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
The loss of al-Tanf to IS follows the group's takeover of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday.
The US says that fighting the militants will be a "difficult challenge".
Islamic State now controls "more than 95,000 sq km (36,679 sq miles)" of Syria, which is 50% of the country's entire territory, the SOHR said.
The militants dominate the provinces of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa and have a strong presence in Hasakeh, Aleppo, Homs and Hama.
However, correspondents say there are large areas under IS control in the east that are not very significant strategically.
IS has also been made significant gains in neighbouring Iraq, capturing the strategically-important city of Ramadi in Anbar province after weeks of fighting......BBC
22/5/15