Defense secretary: USA ready to do more to help retake Ramadi

US airstrikes in recent days killed an estimated 350 Islamic State fighters holed up in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, an American military spokesman said Thursday, suggesting the extremists lost as much as half of their defending force.

The center of Ramadi remains under Islamic State control, but Rasool said the militants, which Iraqi intelligence estimates number between 250 and 300 fighters, are losing the initiative and suffering food and ammunition shortages after government forces cut their last supply line into the city last month.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is willing to commit more US support to Iraq in its fight against Islamic State, including “accompanying advisers”.

Carter outlined the steps as the Obama administration faces criticism from both Republicans and Democrats about its strategy to defeat the IS militants, reflecting a nation’s growing fears about the threat of terrorism.

He predicted tough fighting ahead but said the Iraqi forces have shown resilience when faced with counterattacks from the Islamic State.

Defense Ash Carter testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, …

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the panel, asked Carter whether he agrees with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about ISIS not being contained.

“It’s a matter of time [before we] liberate Ramadi from the remnants of Daesh [IS], their crimes, and the IEDs which they planted in the houses and streets”, Abadi said.

“Someone’s going to have to convince me that air power alone, (with) special operations forces are going to succeed in the short-term, in order to prevent further things such as San Bernardino”, McCain said, referring to the December 2 shooting by an apparently self-radicalized Muslim couple who killed 14 people. “In the medium term, by seeming to Americanize the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, we could well turn those fighting [the Islamic State] or inclined to resist their rule into fighting us instead”.

Remember, the Iraqi War turned the corner in 2006 and 2007 due to the Surge but also due to the “bribing” of Sunni tribes to help us and to go against AQ in Iraq which later evolved into ISIS.

“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.

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”.

He also said the Iraqi army has had only one soldier killed in action against the Islamic State dur-ing the week’s assault on Ramadi.

Carter expressed frustration at European countries that have not stepped up their efforts in the fight.

He said Daesh militants have transferred their weaponry from the area to other parts of the city, adding that his forces are waiting for an order from Baghdad to launch an offensive into the central parts of Ramadi where Daesh militants are holed up.

The embarrassment has made retaking Ramadi a focus for Iraqi forces, who have been battling ISIS on several fronts.

“In every case of involvement in a military deployment we’ve seen that committment get wider and last longer”.

The Kurdistan Regional Government said on Saturday that Turkey had opened three military training bases in Iraq in late 2014, two for Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the Kurdish region’s Soran and Qalacholan districts, and a third for other Iraqi forces near Mosul.