Posted on 05/18/2015 4:41:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The decision by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is a Shi'ite, to send in the militias to try to retake the predominantly Sunni city could add to sectarian hostility in one of the most violent parts of Iraq.
Washington, which is leading a campaign of air strikes to roll back Islamic State advances and struggling to rebuild Baghdad's shattered army, played down the significance of the loss of Ramadi, the capital of the vast western Anbar province.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it was a "target of opportunity," that could be retaken in a matter of days, and U.S. officials insisted there would be no change in strategy despite a failure to make major advances against Islamic State.
Warplanes in the U.S.-led coalition had conducted 19 strikes near Ramadi over the past 72 hours at the request of the Iraqi security forces, a coalition spokesman said.
The Shi'ite militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilization, "reached the Habbaniya base and are now on standby," said the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout.
An eyewitness described a long line of armored vehicles and trucks mounted with machine guns and rockets, flying the yellow flags of Kataib Hezbollah, one of the militia factions, heading towards the base about 30 km (20 miles) from Ramadi.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The best strategy would have been to not lose it in the first place.
If Hezbollah goes into Ramadi, the bloodshed will be truly epic.
Good luck with that. They have already run away from defensive positions once.
Different forces, I think.
These Shias have been waiting in the wings for the PM to give them a green light to take a major Sunni city
So the first Shias gave Ramadi to the Sunnis so Shias could take a Sunni city? That is really Machiavellian! Why didn’t anyone else think of such a brilliant move? :>)
I don’t know.
Robert Baer, a CNN intelligence and security analyst, said involving the Popular Mobilization Units could create “a different bloodbath on its own
“It would be Sunni against Shia,” he said. “Who knows what that would provoke?”
At the very least, the arrival of predominantly Shiite forces is likely to do little to soothe the grievances of the beleaguered Sunni tribes that have been fighting ISIS for control of Ramadi since the first half of last year.
Officials in the city have repeatedly called for more support and weapons from the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad and for more airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.
But despite their warnings, one of the cities for which U.S. forces fought bitterly in 2005 and 2006 eventually fell to ISIS.
“Ramadi is hugely symbolic,” said Mansoor, a former aide to Gen. David Petraeus, who led U.S. forces in Iraq. “It’s the birthplace of the Awakening, the tribal rebellion against al Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner to ISIS — a tribal rebellion that did so much to defeat that group back during the surge of 2007 and 2008.”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/asia/isis-ramadi/index.html
Nuke it. Nuke it now.
Daisy cutters and MOABs please.
Have you ever heard of one instance when these so-called weapons have been used? I haven’t.
My thoughts exactly. Just do it. But we won’t...What a worthless bunch of people. And the Iraqi Army WE trained/armed/deployed? At Mosul, 1000 ISIS drove out 30,000 “soldiers” of the Iraqi Army. What a horrendous performance!
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