BAGHDAD, June 1: Al Qaeda is taking advantage of sectarian differences to make inroads in Ramadi, and the US military is ‘very concerned’ about the situation, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell confirmed that about 1,500 combat troops have been moved from a reserve force in Kuwait into the Anbar province, which surrounds Ramadi, to help authorities establish order in the guerilla hotbed stretching from Baghdad west to Syria.

He described the new deployment as short-term to ensure continuity during summer rotations and said the focus was on quelling the Al Qaeda presence in the area and keeping foreign fighters from crossing over from Syria.

“The situation in Ramadi, just like in Baghdad, is serious at this time and it’s something we’re paying a lot of attention to,” he said.

Caldwell, spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq, said the terror network ‘has taken advantage of some sectarian differences out there and tried to foment more violence between those groups’.

Though not powerful enough to overrun US positions, guerillas in the city of 400,000 have found US and Iraqi forces to a virtual stalemate.

Reining in Ramadi, 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, through arms or persuasion, could be the toughest challenge for Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s new government.

Al-Maliki has promised to use ‘maximum force’ when needed.

But three years of US military presence, with nearly constant patrols and sweeps, hasn’t done it.

US and Iraqi commanders say militants fled to Ramadi from Fallujah during a devastating US-led assault there in 2004.

Others have joined from elsewhere in Anbar, blending into a civilian population either sympathetic to their cause or too afraid to turn against them.—AP