How
to reclaim Iraq’s Ramadi from Islamic State/Hayder al-Khoei is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, a London-based international affairs think tank.
Agencia Reuters
| 18/05/15
The
fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, is a major defeat for
the Iraqi security forces. It follows a period in which a number of strategic
advances have been made by Iraqi forces elsewhere in the north and east of the
war-torn country. Dreams of an offensive to defeat Islamic State in Mosul this
year will now be crushed. Iraq will instead focus its resources and attention
on liberating Ramadi, which lies just 60 miles to the east of Baghdad.
The
complex realities on the ground will also lead to difficult choices being made
on all sides of the conflict. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s approval
to send in the Shi’ite-dominated Hashid Shaabi paramilitary forces to the
Sunni-dominated Anbar region will worry many, but it comes at the request of
local Sunnis who are desperate to defend their areas against Islamic State. The
Anbar governor, provincial council and local tribes have publically asked
Baghdad to send in these paramilitary forces to support Iraq’s security forces
and Sunni tribesmen.
