BAGHDAD: Iraq has for the first time deployed troops trained by the US-led coalition in their campaign to retake the city of Ramadi from militants, sending 3,000 of them in recent days, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday.

Colonel Steve Warren told reporters travelling with Defence Secretary Ash Carter that 500 tribesmen, whose training by Iraqis was overseen by US troops, were also taking part in the operation. He declined to say how many Iraqi forces in total were involved in the Ramadi operation.

The Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, were in the process of encircling Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, in an effort to choke off IS supplies and trap their fighters, ahead of a push to seize the city, Warren said.

The self-styled Islamic State seized Anbar’s capital Ramadi two months ago, extending its control over the Euphrates valley west of Baghdad and dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the US-backed army he entrusted with its defence.

Carter, on his first visit since taking up his post in February, met US commanders as well as Iraqi political leaders, including Abadi. He was briefed by Iraqi officials on the deployment of the coalition-trained troops.

Carter has criticised Iraqi forces in past for lacking a will to fight in Ramadi. He praised Abadi and Iraqi troops on Thursday but also stressed that US-led coalition airpower needed to be complemented by “capable ground forces”.

“And getting those forces, in turn, requires inclusive governance,” Carter said during his meeting with Abadi.

The loss of Ramadi was the Iraqi army’s worst defeat since IS militants swept through north Iraq last summer and raised questions about the ability of the Shia-led government in Baghdad to overcome the sectarian divide that has helped fuel the IS expansion in Anbar.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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