IS takeover of Ramadi setback for Iraq, US policy
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E-mail Xinhua, May 21, 2015
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A girl and her family who escaped from the area controlled by the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's Ramadi cross the Bzibz bridge in south Fallujah on their way to Baghdad on May 20, 2015. [Xinhua/Khalil Dawood] |
However, Jubouri pointed out that security forces and Shiite militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, made it difficult for the IS militants to seize more lands in Iraq, but retaking control of the IS-held cities and towns is still a harder task due to the deep division among the Iraqi factions, which makes it hard to adopt decisive decisions about how to fight back terrorism.
Moreover, the extra-large areas of battleground in the Sunni Arab provinces and the absence of the owners of the land (Sunnis) from the scene are main reasons for the failure in driving out the IS militants from these areas, Jubouri added.
Ibrahim al-Ameri, a lecturer of politics at Baghdad University, told Xinhua that it was crucial to bring Sunni tribal fighters in Anbar to battlefield but the efforts to bring them were so slow. Meantime, the IS militants were moving faster in their fighting in both the provinces of Salahudin and Anbar.
Iraqi authorities have failed so far to enact a law to form the national guard from tribal Sunni fighters to join the Shiite-dominated security forces, but several thousands of tribesmen formed their own groups to fight back the IS advance with weak support and arming from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government.
"With the fall of Ramadi and unaccomplished task of legally recruiting Sunnis, the U.S. administration was forced to accept the presence of Iranian-backed Shiite militias, despite the fact that many of Anbar residents will regard the Shiite militias with as much or even more fear than they feel for the Sunni extremist IS militants," Ameri said.
"However, if Iraq and its international partners succeed and bring Ramadi back, the battle could provide valuable experience for following military actions," Ameri said.
The IS group has seized most of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.
The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS militants.
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