Islamic State militants said they
had taken full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday in
the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer.
Smoke rises after a bomb attack in the city of Ramadi, May 15, 2015.
In a statement, the group said it had
seized tanks and killed "dozens of apostates", its description for
members of the Iraqi security forces.
Ramadi is the capital of Iraq's western
Anbar province, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims. Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi signed off on the deployment of Shi'ite militias to
attempt to seize back the area, a move he previously resisted for fear
of provoking a sectarian backlash.
Earlier, security sources said
government forces evacuated a key military base after it came under
attack by the insurgents, who had already taken one of the last
districts still holding out.
It was the biggest victory for Islamic
State in Iraq since security forces and Shi'ite paramilitary groups
began pushing the militants back last year, aided by air strikes from a
U.S.-led coalition.
The U.S. Defense Department, while not
confirming the fall of Ramadi, sought to play down the impact on the
broader Iraq military campaign of an Islamic State seizure of the city.
"Ramadi has been contested since last
summer and ISIL now has the advantage," Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa
Smith said, using another acronym for Islamic State. She said the loss
of the city would not mean the overall Iraq military campaign was
turning in Islamic State's favor, but acknowledged it would give the
group a "propaganda boost."
"That just means the coalition will have
to support Iraqi forces to take it back later," Smith said, adding that
the United States was continuing to provide it air support and advice.
The Iraqi government had vowed to
liberate Anbar after routing the militants from the city of Tikrit last
month. But the security forces, which partly disintegrated under an
Islamic State onslaught last June, have struggled to gain traction in
the vast desert province.
An officer who withdrew from the
besieged army base said the militants were urging them via loudspeaker
to discard their weapons, promising to show mercy in return.
"Most of the troops withdrew from the
operations command headquarters and Daesh fighters managed to break in
from the southern gate," the officer said. Daesh is an Arabic name for
Islamic State.
"We are retreating to the west to reach a safe area".
'Total collapse'
Earlier on Sunday, Anbar provincial council member Athal Fahdawi described the situation in Ramadi as "total collapse".
It was one of only a few towns and
cities to have remained under government control in the vast desert
terrain, which borders Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan.
Islamic State, which emerged as an
offshoot of al Qaeda, controls large parts of Iraq and Syria in a
self-proclaimed caliphate where it has massacred members of religious
minorities and slaughtered Western and Arab hostages.
The United States and its allies have
been pounding the militants for months with air strikes in both
countries. Washington said on Saturday its special forces had killed a
senior Islamic State figure in a raid into Syria.
Over a period of 24 hours up to 0500 GMT
(0100 EDT) on Sunday, the U.S.-led coalition carried out seven air
strikes near Ramadi, according to a statement - the highest number on
any single location in Iraq and Syria.
Source: Reuters
0 Post a Comment: