ISIS cowards use Ramadi residents ‘as human shields’ as Iraqi forces retake

Islamic State captured Ramadi, a provincial capital just a short drive west of Baghdad, in May in its biggest conquest since previous year.

“The global community – including our allies and partners – has to step up before another attack like Paris”, US defence chief Ashton Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, referring to a militant assault with guns and bombs that killed 130 people.

He said that if requested by Baghdad, the United States was prepared to provide the helicopters and advisers to help “finish the job”.

But even as Carter said that the U.S.is “building momentum against ISIL”, also known as ISIS, he agreed with an assessment from McCain that the terrorist group hadn’t been contained. He called for a U.S.-led worldwide force to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

The Pentagon early this month expanded the Obama administration’s overseas deployment plan to include Iraq, saying that a new USA specialized operations force of about 100 was being deployed to Iraq.

An Iraqi soldier patrols after clashes between Iraqi forces and Islamic State group fighters in Ramadi, Iraq, on November 20, 2015.

In Anbar, Maj. Gen. Ismail Al Mahlawi, the head of Iraqi military operations in the province, said his troops were readying to push “towards the government complex and the Houz area” in central Ramadi.

A USA defense official told AFP the secretary was referring to US Apache helicopters already in Iraq serving in a force protection role.

Iraqi forces on Wednesday consolidated newly gained positions in Ramadi, after achieving a breakthrough in their fight against Daesh (the so-called IS) group by retaking a large part of the city.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter still described the Iraqi offensive as “disappointingly slow” in separate comments today, saying he is certain the city will eventually fall, but once again talking up his offer of United States attack helicopters for the attack on the city.

“There is still tough fighting ahead”, Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Carter seemed to agree with a more open-ended authorization with no geographical limits, for instance, but hedged his answer as to not contradict his own statements in support of an authorization for new war powers that President Barack Obama has sent to Congress in February – one that included some limits on taking the fight to IS.

“They’re holding civilians as hostages, and as human shields, and so we want to do this in a very careful and deliberate way”, he said. Last week, Carter announced that smaller contingents of special operations forces would be sent to Iraq and Syria to conduct raids and advise local forces. Obama remains against major US ground combat in Iraq or Syria.

Democrats were mostly supportive of the administration’s strategy, but some challenged Carter in one aspect: why the administration hadn’t tried to establish a humanitarian no-fly zone – an undertaking both Carter and Selva said wasn’t worth the cost of risking confrontation with Syrian air forces or their Russian allies.