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Iraqi militias head to Anbar after fall of provincial capital to Isis


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Iraqi defence ministry says reinforcements on the way after Islamic State claims full control over Ramadi

 

 

Kareem Shaheen in Beirut

Monday 18 May 2015 10.37 BST  

Last modified on Monday 18 May 2015 12.52 BST

 

 

 

Iraqi militias have begun mobilising towards the predominantly Sunni Anbar province in a belated effort to push back against Islamic State, which seized the region’s capital city on Sunday.

 

“We invite our people in Anbar to remain steadfast and hold their ground as reinforcements from your brothers in Hashd al-Shaabi are coming,” the Iraqi defence ministry said. The Hashd is a conglomerate of fighters including mainly Shia militias and pro-government local Sunni fighters who have taken up arms against Isis.

 

On Sunday Isis said it had established full control over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province. It is the second provincial capital to be taken by Isis since Mosul was conquered in a lightning offensive last June, and its fall represents the biggest defeat since then for the government in Baghdad.

 

About 500 people have been killed in the fighting for Ramadi in recent days and between 6,000 and 8,000 have fled, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

 

The US-led coalition against Isis launched seven air strikes targeting the group in Ramadi on Sunday, signalling growing alarm at its surge in the area.

 

Anbar is particularly symbolic because the precursor to Isis was ousted from the region by local Sunni tribes with American backing, in what was known as the Anbar awakening.

 

Ramadi had been under pressure after much of Anbar fell to Isis during its offensive last summer. Late last week security forces withdrew from their main command headquarters in the city under an intensified assault by the militants.

 

Anbar provincial officials have been urgently requesting reinforcements to hold off the militants, but the government in Baghdad has been slow to respond or to arm local Sunnis. Now the government has asked the militias to intervene, after they led a successful campaign to remove Isis from Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit.

 

“We are not going to watch as Daesh [isis] expands,” said Karim Nouri, a spokesman for the Hashd and the Badr Organisation, the most powerful militia in Iraq.

 

The Hashd had been preparing for an Anbar operation since Tikrit was retaken, but Nouri blamed the dithering of politicians and a media campaign against the militias for the delay in mobilising.

 

Concerns had been raised over the Tikrit operation because of the leading role played by Shia militias, some of whom are backed by Iran and have been involved in abuses in the past related to sectarian bloodletting during the American occupation and in towns retaken from Isis in recent months.

 

Nouri said the same groups that took part in the liberation of Tikrit would take part in the Anbar operation, alongside Iraqi security forces and local pro-government Sunni fighters.

 

He said the battle would be drawn out and required good reconnaissance, planning and arms provisions, as well as fighters experienced in guerrilla warfare. “It’s an existential battle for us,” he said.

 

It also appears to be an existential battle for Isis, which has flooded Anbar with about 5,000 fighters, including 1,200 Arab and foreign militants, according to Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert on the militant group. “It’s a battle to settle the score between the Hashd and Daesh,” he said.

 

Isis condemns the Hashd as servants of Iran and has already executed over 400 “awakening” members and civilians in its rampage through Ramadi. The group now threatens multiple military encampments in the area, including the Habbaniya base, which houses American military advisers.

 

 

Isis take Ramadi
 

iraq_Ramadi-3-0-0.png

 
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IF the troops in the militia do not know why they are fighting, and IF their leaders are of the same caliber as the ones they had in charge when the city fell, then Iraq will loose some more equipment to ISIS.  I believe that the ebb and flow of the battle for Ramadi will continue until the US puts some action to their words about "assistance from the air."  As yet there has not been one bomb dropped, not one missile sent from the U.S. to assist the Iraqi forces in repelling ISIS.  Not one!  THE U.S. MUST REALLY BE BEHIND IRAQ!  Yah, right!  

PROTOS, GET OFF YOUR DUFF AND DO SOME LEADING!!!

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This's still the ME...ran with ME mentality...An up-rising isn't beyond they capacity...They are reviewing death sentences of imprisoned Sunni political and military leaders at this period of time...with awaited decisions to be rendered...The National Guard and Amnesty Bills are in their final readings and these folks want some of the armor money and equipment just approved for Kurdish use...ISIS can still be used as a scape-goat for a lot of lose-ends... 

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They knew after the Iraqi decision to recapture Mosal that ISIS was then going to turn their efforts onto Ramadi. And they did just that. Tell me did Iraq forces ever retake Mosal? Did they? Iraq must hold onto territory they have regardless of which brand of Islam the inhabitants worship to. Iraq must also have a standing order to shoot on site any troops that abandon their posts and or equipment without orders to retreat. If you must leave the area destroy all equipment first, so ISIS cannot use it against us. Put a tank bomb on them set to blow up when the tank is next started. That will be that.

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