Trained Iraqi troops join the fight in Ramadi

Iraqi security forces, supported by U.S. airstrikes, have been conducting “shaping” and “isolating” operations in preparation of the Ramadi assault, set to begin between one to eight weeks.

Sunni extremists regard Shiites as heretics.

Mr Carter told the Iraqi counter-terrorism commanders: “Your forces have performed so very well, so very bravely”.

Iraqi troops trained by the US-led coalition have joined the battlefield for the first time, a US pentagon spokesman said Thursday, and are battling the Islamic State group to retake Ramadi.

US defence secretary Ashton Carter (right) is greeted by the US ambassador to Iraq, Stu Jones (centre), and Army Lieutenant General James Terry upon his arrival in Baghdad on Thursday. The Islamic State is estimated to have 1,000 to 2,000 fighters in the city.

It also raised questions about the ability of the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad to overcome the sectarian divide that has helped fuel the Islamic State’s expansion in Anbar.

That prompted U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter to raise doubts about the morale and reliability of Iraqi forces, and their willingness to fight the IS militants.

During congressional testimony last month, Carter threatened that the US has prepared a strategy to dissolve the unified Iraqi state if Washington deems it necessary, bypassing Baghdad and instead ruling portions of the country on the basis of separate alliances with Sunni and Kurdish elements.

Warren said Dempsey and the commander of US forces in the Middle East, General Lloyd Austin, do not now recommend the inclusion of US forces in the ground assault on Ramadi.

The Iraqi government intends to exclude all Shi’ite militias from the operation, even those under control of the Iraqi government.

During his brief visit, which had not been announced in advance for security reasons, Carter will also meet some of the 3,500 US troops deployed to train and advise Iraqi forces.

Carter, who has criticized Iraqi forces for lacking a will to fight in Ramadi, said he sought to form “my own on-the-ground assessment of the campaign” against the Sunni militants.

Warren said this week that those forces aimed to “place a noose around the city and isolate it” from militants elsewhere.

Carter also held talks with other officials from Iraq’s Shiite-led government, including Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, and leaders from the Sunni minority.

The loss of Ramadi was a major setback for Iraq, not just for the territory given up but for the psychological blow it inflicted on the security forces, whose confidence already was low.

That became clear Wednesday when Islamic State fighters retook a neighborhood in Saqlawiyah, northwest of Fallujah, from Shiite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers.