Headlines
Obama: US not losing fight against Islamic State
Washington, May 22
President Barack Obama
said in an interview published Thursday that the US is not losing the
fight against the Islamic State radical group in Iraq and Syria, but he
acknowledged that it will be necessary to intensify the training of
Sunni militias in some zones to support Iraqi military forces.
"I
don't think we're losing. There's no doubt there was a tactical
setback, although Ramadi had been vulnerable for a very long time,"
Obama said in an interview with news magazine The Atlantic, a few days
after the Iraqi city of Ramadi was overrun by IS fighters.
Obama
blamed the IS capture of Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar province, on
the lack of training and reinforcement of Iraq's security forces.
"They
have been there essentially for a year without sufficient
reinforcements," he said, adding that "it is indicative that the
training of Iraqi security forces, the fortifications, the
command-and-control systems are not happening fast enough in Anbar, in
the Sunni parts of the country".
He also admitted that it is
necessary to do a better job in enlisting Sunni tribesmen in Al Anbar
province to fight against the IS, something the Shia-headed national
government has not been doing.
Iraq's Sunni minority, for its
part, is deeply mistrustful of the Iraqi armed forces, which are
dominated by Shia commanders, and also the Shia militias supported by
Iran that have been key in expelling the IS from other cities such as
Tikrit.
Meanwhile, in the north, the Iraqi Kurdish forces have
kept the IS at bay while the US-led international coalition has been
carrying out airstrikes on the jihadis since last autumn across a wide
area running from northwestern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad.
Obama, however, denied once again that he is considering sending US ground troops into Iraq.
"There's
no doubt that in the Sunni area we're going to have to ramp up not just
training, but also commitment, and we better get Sunni tribes more
activated than they currently have been," he said.
The White
House has been the target of harsh criticism since the IS gained a
significant advantage over the Syrian army by taking the city of
Palmyra, a move that put the jihadis in control of more than half of
Syrian territory.