Month: May 2015

ENLARGE Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters in Ramadi in April, before the city was seized by Islamic State last week. U.S. Defense Secretary signaled the possibility of a shift in the country’s strategy in Iraq on Sunday. Photo: Associated Press Defense Secretary Ash Carter held open the possibility of a strategy shift by the White House on Iraq, a few days after recent setbacks in Iraq and Syria revived sharp criticism of the Obama administration’s approach in combating extremist groups there. Islamic State forces last week captured the key Iraqi city of Ramadi and also expanded their reach in Syria. Critics and even allies of the administration took to Sunday television talk shows to call for a strategy change by the administration to stem the advance of Islamic State forces. Among the calls: More aggressively arming Sunni tribes and Peshmerga forces who oppose Islamic State, also known as […]

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BAGHDAD/BEIRUT Iraqi forces recaptured territory from advancing Islamic State militants near the recently-fallen city of Ramadi on Sunday, while in Syria the government said the Islamists had killed hundreds of people since capturing the town of Palmyra. The fall of Ramadi and Palmyra, on opposite ends of the vast territory controlled by Islamic State fighters, were the militant group’s biggest successes since a U.S.-led coalition launched an air war to stop them last year. The near simultaneous victories against the Iraqi and Syrian armies have forced Washington to examine its strategy, which involves bombing from the air but leaving fighting on the ground to local forces in both countries. In a sharp criticism of Washington’s ally, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Iraq’s army of abandoning Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad, to a much smaller enemy force. "The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," he […]

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AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta WASHINGTON (AP) — The Islamic State group’s takeover of the Iraqi provincial capital Ramadi has prompted criticism from Defense Secretary Ash Carter and raised new questions about the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat the extremist group. The Islamic State group, which had already seized a strategically important swath of the Middle East, seized Ramadi in central Iraq a week ago, which has revived concerns about U.S. efforts to fight the group. The Obama administration’s approach in Iraq is a blend of retraining and rebuilding the Iraqi army, prodding the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad to reconcile with the nation’s Sunnis and bombing Islamic State group targets from the air without committing American ground combat troops. President Barack Obama’s strategy is predicated on Baghdad granting political concessions to the country’s alienated Sunnis, who are a source of personnel and money for the Islamic State group. But there […]

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Islamic State The Iraqi city of Ramadi could be taken back from Islamic State (IS) militants "in days", Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has told the BBC. But he said more support was needed from international coalition partners. Iraqi forces have suffered a number of defeats at the hands of IS over the past year, and fled from a smaller militant force in Ramadi last week. On Sunday, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said that the rout showed Iraqi troops lacked the will to fight. Mr Carter told CNN that the Iraqis had chosen to withdraw despite the fact that they "vastly outnumbered" IS forces. Meanwhile, the leader of the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said the world faced an unprecedented danger from IS and other Sunni militant groups fighting in Syria. Some observers say IS now controls 50% of Syria’s entire territory – as well as a third […]

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Photo Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter at a news conference in Washington this month. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Sunday that Iraqi forces had demonstrated “no will to fight” against the Islamic State, blaming them for a retreat that led to the terrorist group’s victory in capturing the Iraqi city of Ramadi. While that critical assessment of Iraqi security forces has been voiced in Congress and by policy research institutes, Mr. Carter’s remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union” were some of the administration’s strongest language to date about Iraq ’s repeated inability to hold and take back territory from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they failed to fight and withdrew from the site,” he said. “That says to me and, I […]

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