Baghdad: Iraqi forces said they fought off an overnight attack by Daesh militants near the city of Ramadi, which the terrorists 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 isolated pockets of territory remain under government control. The Daesh advance has exposed the failings 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 Daesh forces have tanks and artillery abandoned by fleeing Iraqi forces.
Overnight, Daesh terrorists 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.
“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 the town of Fallujah, which has been under Daesh control for more than a year and is 50 km from the Iraqi capital.
Daesh appears to be trying to join up Ramadi and Fallujah by taking territory between the two towns.
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 public buildings.
The White House said a US-led air campaign would back Iraqi forces in their attempt to regain Ramadi, whose fall exposed the limits of US air power in its battle against Daesh in both Iraq and Syria.
The United States is anxious that the Shiite militia are controlled by the Iraqi authorities rather than Iranian advisers.
There are also 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 becomes increasingly dependent on the Iranian-backed Shiite militias to step in where the Iraqi military has failed.
Abadi’s decision to send in the militia, known as Hashid Shaabi or Popular Mobilisation, to try to retake the predominantly Sunni city of Ramadi could stir up further sectarian hostility in one of the most violent parts of Iraq.
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 forces to give ground in Tikrit, Saddam Hussain’s home town, and in the Syrian city of Kobani, the group still controls large areas of Iraq and Syria.
Local officials have said 500 people were killed in the fighting to take Ramadi and the international migration agency says more than 40,000 people have fled the city.
While the Abadi government has renewed its pledge to equip and train pro-government Sunni tribes with a view to replicating the “surge” campaign of 2006-07, when US Marines turned the tide against Al Qaida -- forerunners of Daesh -- by arming and paying local tribes in a movement known as the Anbar Awakening.
But a repeat will be more difficult. Sunni tribal leaders complain that the government was not serious about arming them again, and say they received only token support.
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, around 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.
