Carter opens door to ground support for Iraqis

The US is willing to do more to assist the Iraqi army in its fight to retake the city of Ramadi from the so-called Islamic State (IS), US Defence Secretary Ash Carter has said.

Carter said it has taken a “frustratingly long time” for Iraqi security forces to claw back territory.

The United States says it is prepared to assist the Iraqi Army with more personnel and attack helicopters to help it fight the Islamic State (IS) group.

“You can’t defeat ISIS without having people on the ground”, Odierno, who retired in August, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

Since Iraq’s military launched its push on Ramadi earlier this month, the militants have destroyed all other bridges leading into the city, both on the Euphrates and its tributary, the Warar River.

The Senate hearing came two days after Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said that US allies are close to sending their own special forces to the region to aid in the fight against ISIS.

Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite fighters chant slogans as they gather at Udhaim dam, north of Baghdad March 1, 2015. “In the near-term, it would be a significant undertaking that, realistically, we would embark upon largely by ourselves; and it would be ceding our comparative advantage of special forces, mobility, and firepower, instead fighting on the enemy’s terms”. In this case the Pentagon lifted that veil to bolster its argument that the US military strategy is building momentum at a time when its critics claim the Islamic State is winning.

Carter defended the administration’s decision not to deploy a heavy USA ground force to drive IS from Syrian and Iraqi territory.

Selva declined to provide a full answer outside of a classified setting, but said, “Today they share the goal of wanting to take their homes back and beat ISIL”. “We will do more of what works going forward”.

The Pentagon maintains that Iraqi forces have made progress in retaking Ramadi, the provincial capital in the western part of the country, from ISIL fighters.

The militants who have controlled the city for more than six months have set up a daunting defensive perimeter of mines, shooting positions and improvised explosive devices. About 10,000 Iraqi troops have encircled the center portion of the city where it is believed hundreds of ISIS fighters remain.

Al-Mahlawi, the Iraqi commander in Anbar, said coalition and Iraqi aircraft contributed significantly to the operation, opening “the way before we sent combat units in”.

Food supplies used to enter the city from the west, but since Iraqi forces surrounded it, residents are subsisting on meager rations of vegetables and a small quantity of flour distributed by the militants.

Muhannad Haimour, the spokesman for the Anbar governor’s office, said he’s receiving reports that Daesh inside Ramadi is collapsing.

“But this is a worldwide phenomenon, and I’ve talked to leaders – I was recently talking to some leaders in Southeast Asia, actually about many things, but one of the things they raised is concern about little patches of ISIL and self-radicalization of the kind that we find”.