Iraqi forces ‘repulse Islamist attack near Ramadi’

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces said they fought off an overnight attack by Daesh militants near the city of Ramadi, which the insurgents overran at the weekend in the most significant setback for the government in a year.

Daesh is seeking to consolidate its gains in the vast desert province of Anbar, of which Ramadi is capital, where only pockets of territory remain under government control. The Daesh advance has exposed the shortcomings of Iraq’s army and the limitations of US air strikes.

Government forces backed by Shiite militias have meanwhile been building up at a base near Ramadi in preparation for a counterattack to retake the city, where Sunni Daesh forces have taken over tanks and artillery and large amounts of ammunition abandoned by fleeing Iraqi forces.

The Anbar police chief, Kadhum Al Fahdawi, said reinforcements were arriving as Iraqi forces dug in. The US-led coalition staged 25 air strikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria since early on Tuesday.

There was however no indication that the counterattack on Ramadi was imminent.

Ramadi was Daesh’s biggest success since it captured the northern city of Mosul last year and declared itself an Islamic caliphate. While it has been forced to give ground in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town, and in the Syrian city of Kobani, the group still controls large areas of Iraq and Syria.

Sectarian fears

There are fears in Washington and elsewhere that the fighting in Iraq will become a polarising clash between Shiites and Sunnis as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, a Shiite, becomes increasingly dependent on the Iranian-backed Shiite militias to step in where the Iraqi military has failed.

Daesh fighters attacked government forces in the town of Husaiba Al Sharqiya, about halfway between Ramadi and the Habbaniya military base where militia fighters have assembled, police and pro-government forces said.

“Daesh attacked us around midnight after a wave of mortar shelling on our positions,” Amir Al Fahdawi, a leader of the pro-government Sunni tribal force in the area, told Reuters on Wednesday.

“This time they came from another direction in an attempt to launch a surprise attack, but we were vigilant and, after around four hours of fighting, we aborted their offensive,” he added.

The Habbaniya base is midway between Ramadi and Fallujah, which has been under Daesh control for more than a year and is 50km from Baghdad. Daesh appears to be trying to join up Ramadi and Fallujah by taking territory in between.

“They want to occupy more of Anbar,” said Sabah Karhout, head of the Anbar provincial council. “Their primary aim is to connect Ramadi to Fallujah.”

As pressure mounted for action to retake Ramadi, a local government official urged citizens to join the police and the army to join what Shiite militiamen have said will be the “Battle of Anbar”.

Daesh fighters have set up defensive positions and laid landmines, witnesses in Ramadi said. The group’s black flags are flying over the main mosque and other buildings.

Hasty retreat

Abadi’s decision to send in the Shiite militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, to try to retake predominantly Sunni Ramadi could stir up further sectarian hostility in one of the most violent parts of Iraq.

Local officials say 500 people were killed in the fighting to take they city and the international migration agency says more than 40,000 people have fled.

When the Iraqi forces beat a hasty retreat from Ramadi at the weekend, they left behind a large amount of military supplies, including about a half a dozen tanks, 100 wheeled vehicles and some artillery, the Pentagon said.

A Pentagon spokesman said it would have been preferable if the Iraqi troops had destroyed the equipment before leaving.

An Iraqi army officer who commanded an armoured regiment in Ramadi said the militants had seized a depot that held enough ammunition to sustain Daesh for months.

Ministers from members of the coalition fighting Daesh will meet in Paris on June 2 to plot strategy including how to reverse recent losses, French officials said.