U.S. says airstrikes killed 350 in Ramadi, Iraq, in past week

Iraqi forces were preparing to push further into the centre of the Daesh-held city of Ramadi as the extremist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed 11 people on Wednesday.

Backed by sustained air strikes from the US-led coalition, elite troops recaptured Ramadi’s southwestern neighbourhood of Al-Tameem on Tuesday.

Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the USA military command in Baghdad, announced the deaths of Abu Salah, known as Isis’ financial minister, Abu Maryam, an “enforcer and senior leader of their [Isis] extortion network”, and Abu Rahman al-Tunisi, an “executive officer” who handles the transfer of information, people and weapons.

Anthony Cordesman, a long-time Middle East defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the commando force could be helpful if used as part of a broader USA strategy for developing effective local ground forces in both Syria and Iraq. Carter said that the United States was “at war” with IS.

“As that accumulates and there are more of them, we’ll do more to fall in behind them with the objective of them then taking Raqqa, which would be a very important victory in the heart of ISIL territory”, Carter said.

“The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers, if circumstances dictate and if requested by Prime Minister (Haider al-) Abadi”, he said.

“The US advisers would be prepared to provide advice to Iraqi security forces”.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs testified Wednesday that there are no plans for an allied ground assault and that indigenous Arab forces are not ready to take on a terrorist army estimated at 30,000-strong.

While the adaptions made in six weeks show US acceleration in the anti-ISIL campaign, Carter said, other nations must step up in the fight before another Paris-type attack occurs.

The offensive to retake Ramadi, in the works for months, is a major test for Iraq’s military, which has been undergoing extensive training since collapsing in the face of an Islamic State onslaught in 2014.

The spokesman for the counter-terrorism forces however said he had no knowledge of any civilians remaining inside the city.

Speaking in Baghdad, Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama’s envoy to the global anti-ISIS coalition, said the presence of civilians in Ramadi will require a cautious approach as the operation moves forward. Residents have said the militants have prevented them from fleeing. “They are not giants”, he said, doubting that “air power alone” can remove the Islamic State from the vast swaths of land it now controls across northern and western Iraq.

“We’ve seen this before; they tend to blow up not just bridges, but a lot of infrastructure inside the city”, Haimour said.