WASHINGTON: Iraqi forces have shown no will to fight the self-styled Islamic State, although they outnumber the extremists, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said in an interview to the CNN on Sunday.

Secretary Carter noted that IS extremists took control of Ramadi last week when Iraqi forces failed to fight for the city and instead withdrew.

“What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,” he said. “They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they failed to fight and withdrew from the site.”

In an earlier statement, President Obama also acknowledged the weakness of the Iraqi forces and said that the fight in Iraq now required “a multi-year commitment”.

On Monday, US Vice President Biden spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi to reaffirm US support for the Iraqi government’s fight against IS. He “welcomed the (Iraqi) council of ministers’ unanimous decision … to mobilise additional troops … and prepare for counter-attack operations”, the White House said.

Mr Biden also pledged full US support to Iraqi efforts to liberate territory from IS, including “the expedited provision of US training and equipment to address the threat posed by IS”.

Ashton Carter, however, questioned the willingness of the Iraqis to fight the extremists and underlined the need to expedite US support to them.

“They withdrew from the site, and that says to me — and I think most of us — that we have an issue with the will of Iraqis to fight IS and defend themselves,” he said.

“What happened in Ramadi was a failure of the Iraqi forces to fight,” Secretary Carter said.

He said that US efforts were devoted to “encourage(ing) their will to fight so that our campaign enabling them can be successful, both in defeating IS and keeping IS defeated in a sustained way”.

But Iraq rejected the charge and attributed Ramadi’s fall to a lack of good equipment, weapons and aerial support.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2015

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