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 Islamic State 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
IS advance has exposed the shortcomings of Iraq's army and the
limitations of U.S. air strikes.
Government forces backed by Shi'ite militias have meanwhile been
building up at a base near Ramadi in preparation for a counterattack
to retake the city, where Sunni Islamic State forces have taken over
tanks and artillery and large amounts of ammunition abandoned by
fleeing Iraqi forces.
There are fears in Washington and elsewhere that the fighting in
Iraq will become a polarizing clash between Shi'ites and Sunnis as
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shi'ite, becomes
increasingly dependent on the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias to
step in where the Iraqi military has failed.
Islamic State 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 (Islamic State) 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 the town of
Fallujah, which has been under Islamic State control for more than a
year and is 50 km (30 miles) from the Iraqi capital. Islamic State
appears to be trying to join up Ramadi and Fallujah by taking
territory between the two towns.
"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
Shi'ite militiamen have said will be the "Battle of Anbar".
Islamic State 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.
The White House said a U.S.-led air campaign would back Iraqi forces
in their attempt to regain Ramadi, whose fall exposed the limits of
U.S. air power in its battle against the radical Sunni Islamic State
in both Iraq and Syria.
SECTARIAN HOSTILITY
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.
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Ramadi was Islamic State'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.
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.
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.
An Iraqi army officer who commanded an armored regiment before
Islamic State swept through Ramadi, said the militants had seized a
storage facility that contained enough ammunition to sustain Islamic
State for months.
"The consequences of seizing the ammunition storage in Ramadi will
be much worse than seizing the city itself," the officer said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The real gain for Daesh was not control of Ramadi, but the bigger
prize is the seizure of the army's major ammunition warehouse, where
tonnes of different types of ammunition were stored.”
In Syria, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes are pressing
an attack on Islamic State that has killed at least 170 members of
the group this week, a Kurdish official and a monitoring group said.
The official said Kurdish YPG fighters and allied militia have
encircled Islamic State in a dozen villages near the town of Tel
Tamr in the northeastern Hasaka province. The region is important in
the battle against Islamic State because it borders land controlled
by the jihadists in Iraq.
(Reporting by Baghdad Bureau; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart
and Julia Edwards in Washington; Writing by Giles Elgood; editing by
Janet McBride)
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