| Wall Street Journal | - |
BAGHDAD—Islamic
State seized control of the capital of Iraq's largest province, killing
hundreds of government forces and dealing a crushing setback to U.S.
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Islamic State Seizes Control of Iraqi City of Ramadi
Takeover is a crushing setback to U.S.-backed efforts to halt the spread of the extremist group
ENLARGE
Displaced Iraqis from
Ramadi cross the Bzebiz bridge after spending the night walking toward
Baghdad, as they flee their hometown. Islamic State militants seized
control of Ramadi on Sunday.
Photo:
HADI MIZBAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The fall of the western city of Ramadi, once home to nearly half a million people, represents Islamic State’s biggest military victory this year, gaining it another major Iraqi city among the territory it controls in Iraq as well as Syria.
The advance, a day after a U.S. special-operations team in Syria killed Islamic State’s finance leader, has exposed the fragility of Iraqi forces, despite U.S. efforts to train them. Just as army units melted away in the Iraqi city of Mosul last summer, local police fled by the hundreds from Ramadi.
In Washington, neither the situation in Anbar nor the developments in Syria were seen as likely to alter the timing or tempo of U.S. operations. Both the U.S. raid in Syria and the apparent fall of Ramadi reflect President Barack Obama’s attempts to minimize the chances of large-scale involvement by American forces, and are unlikely to lead to deeper U.S. action in either country.
The defeat in Ramadi came as Iraqi government forces stepped up a campaign to push the militants out of Anbar province, the country’s Sunni heartland, before plans to move north and reclaim Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
“Ramadi, by military standards, has completely fallen to Daesh,” said Taha Abdul Ghani, a member of Anbar’s provincial council, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Mr. Abdul Ghani said police and security forces were ordered to withdraw completely to prevent mass casualties. Local security officials said Islamic State squeezed government forces out of their last post in Ramadi, an operations command center, on Sunday.
Islamic State deployed truck bombs, suicide bombers, and hundreds of fighters called in from Syria to attack government buildings, police garrisons, and civilian homes, said Iraqi officials.
Naseer Nori, head of the defense ministry’s media office, said Islamic State remained a potent adversary despite U.S.-led airstrikes targeting extremist positions in Iraq. “On a strategic level, there have been victories against Daesh. Does this mean Daesh is no longer effective? No. We must be honest.”
Mr. Nori, echoing sentiment of many Iraqi officials, urged deeper American involvement in Iraq. “Is it the role we wish for, is it to the strategic level we wish?” he said. “Absolutely not.”
In Syria, the weekend’s unusual raid was part of Mr. Obama’s war plan of relying on special-operations forces to produce dramatic blows. The force killed Abu Sayyef, Islamic State’s finance leader, and captured his wife, yielding a potential treasure trove of information.
In Iraq, Mr. Obama has kept U.S. personnel out of the fight by relying on Iraqi forces. But their failure to hold the provincial capital, even when backed by U.S. airstrikes, underscores the unreliability of the country’s security forces when faced with a real battle. There are about 3,040 U.S. personnel in Iraq.
The quick deterioration in Ramadi prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to call in the country’s largely Shiite paramilitary force into the Sunni province, a controversial decision given the country’s simmering sectarian tensions and concerns over further empowering Iranian-backed militias.
Still, the move was quickly and widely welcomed across Iraq—a sign of the desperate situation in Anbar and weak confidence in the country’s regular forces in the fight against Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Roughly 120,000 people from Ramadi, an administrative center for Anbar, have fled the fighting since April, according to estimates by United Nations officials.
On Saturday, hundreds of families were left stranded across a bridge separating Baghdad from Anbar province. Baghdad officials had sealed the crossing.
In Washington, U.S. officials cast the militant advance in Ramadi as part of a monthslong seesaw battle in the province.
“ISIL seems to have the advantage,” said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “They will use this for their own propaganda purposes, but it doesn’t give them a significant tactical advantage.”
ENLARGE
It also followed meetings in Baghdad among Prime Minister Abadi, defense officials, and the top American commander in the Middle East, Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, according to the prime minister’s office.
Iraqi officials point to Anbar’s long history as an extremist stronghold—more than 1,000 American troops died fighting al Qaeda in the province between 2004 and 2007—and other factors that have complicated the fight there.
Anbar’s tribes, for example, could be an effective force against Islamic State, but Baghdad has been reluctant to arm them because many there still support or sympathize with Islamic State.
Anbar is also massive territory. Hundreds of miles in the province’s west border Syria, a key gateway for Islamic State fighters and supplies, Iraqi officials say, making the effort to secure the province important to crippling the militants elsewhere in Iraq.
“Most of the support that comes to the terrorists comes through Anbar,” said Mr. Nori, the defense ministry official.
Much of Anbar province has been held by Islamic State for more than a year and half. Recent Islamic State attacks on Ramadi put Mr. Abadi’s government in a bind. He could either call in the Shiite militia forces that were critical to the government’s success in battles elsewhere, or he could reinforce Ramadi with regular forces while working to build up Sunni tribal fighters in Anbar to take on the fight on their own.
U.S. officials—and some Iraqi officials—say they fear the decision to enlist militias in the fight for Ramadi risks undermining the government, which has tried to exert central command over the fight against Islamic State.
It could also strengthen the hand of Iran, which backs some of those militias in Iraq. It also risks provoking or alienating Sunnis opposed to Shiite paramilitaries leading the fight on their lands, and inflaming sectarian tensions.
But by Sunday, the unrelenting Islamic State attack on Ramadi left the government with little choice.
“We have no fighting force anymore,” Col. Hameed Shandookh, head of police in southern Anbar, said by telephone from the province.
Mr. Shandookh said all police units in Ramadi, including hundreds at an operations command center, had been besieged by Islamic State, and hundreds had been killed.
“There is nothing left to fight for,” he said, shortly before leaving for Baghdad. He said the military reinforcements sent by the government to Ramadi on Saturday had disappeared by Sunday afternoon.
New counterterrorism and police forces called to the fight quickly withdrew after Islamic State attacked their position with car bombs. They left behind as many as 50 vehicles, including armored personnel carriers and federal police vehicles, which the militants seized, he said.
Since Islamic State seized the main government compound in Ramadi on Friday, hundreds of police forces, tribal fighters and civilians have been killed—many execution-style, said local and central government officials. Families of police and pro-government forces also came under attack, the officials said.
“The reinforcements sent in to Ramadi were completely inadequate,” the government official said.
The prime minister’s decision to call in the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units, a recruit force made up mostly of tens of thousands of Shiite volunteers and some sophisticated Shiite militias, was announced in a brief statement carried by state-run television. The few Sunni units in the force have already been fighting in parts of Anbar.
In recent weeks, Baghdad has come under U.S. pressure to speed up the training and equipping of Anbar tribes who also fought al Qaeda in Iraq nearly a decade ago. The effort has moved slowly, partly because of objections from Shiite parties in government and concerns over divisions among Anbar’s tribes.
Following his announcement, Prime Minister Abadi met with the heads of the major militias comprising the Popular Mobilization Units to begin military planning, militia members said. Dozens of fighters from one powerful militia, Kataeb Hizbollah, were seen moving from a position they already held in Anbar toward the Habanniyah air base in preparation to deploy to Ramadi.
Fearing further Islamic State incursions closer to the borders of Baghdad, Shiite militias also deployed their forces to depend the capital and the Shiite provinces farther south, home to revered holy sites. “We prepared our elite force to take part in Ramadi, and also deployed our fighters to protect the borders of Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf provinces, just in case,” said Naeem al-Aboudi, spokesman for the As’aib Ahl al-Haq militia.
Moeen al-Khadhimi, a senior lead in the Badr Organization, another of the top Shiite militias, said “there is real seriousness in liberating Anbar, despite the delay in the decision to let the popular force in.”
—Ghassan Adnan
and Ali A. Nabhan in Baghdad
and Dion Nissenbaum
in Washington
contributed to this article.
Write to Nour Malas at nour.malas@wsj.comand Ali A. Nabhan in Baghdad
and Dion Nissenbaum
in Washington
contributed to this article.
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