Iraqi militias head to Anbar after fall of provincial capital to Isis

Iraqi defence ministry says reinforcements on the way after Islamic State claims full control over Ramadi

Iraqi troops retreat from Ramadi after Isis militants take control of the regional capital

Iraqi militias have begun mobilising towards the predominantly Sunni Anbar province in a belated effort to push back against Islamic State, which seized the region’s capital city on Sunday.
“We invite our people in Anbar to remain steadfast and hold their ground as reinforcements from your brothers in Hashd al-Shaabi are coming,” the Iraqi defence ministry said. The Hashd is a conglomerate of fighters including mainly Shia militias and pro-government local Sunni fighters who have taken up arms against Isis.
On Sunday Isis said it had established full control over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province. It is the second provincial capital to be taken by Isis since Mosul was conquered in a lightning offensive last June, and its fall represents the biggest defeat since then for the government in Baghdad.
About 500 people have been killed in the fighting for Ramadi in recent days and between 6,000 and 8,000 have fled, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
The US-led coalition against Isis launched seven air strikes targeting the group in Ramadi on Sunday, signalling growing alarm at its surge in the area.
Anbar is particularly symbolic because the precursor to Isis was ousted from the region by local Sunni tribes with American backing, in what was known as the Anbar awakening.
Ramadi had been under pressure after much of Anbar fell to Isis during its offensive last summer. Late last week security forces withdrew from their main command headquarters in the city under an intensified assault by the militants.

Anbar provincial officials have been urgently requesting reinforcements to hold off the militants, but the government in Baghdad has been slow to respond or to arm local Sunnis. Now the government has asked the militias to intervene, after they led a successful campaign to remove Isis from Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit.

“We are not going to watch as Daesh [Isis] expands,” said Karim Nouri, a spokesman for the Hashd and the Badr Organisation, the most powerful militia in Iraq.
The Hashd had been preparing for an Anbar operation since Tikrit was retaken, but Nouri blamed the dithering of politicians and a media campaign against the militias for the delay in mobilising.
Concerns had been raised over the Tikrit operation because of the leading role played by Shia militias, some of whom are backed by Iran and have been involved in abuses in the past related to sectarian bloodletting during the American occupation and in towns retaken from Isis in recent months.
A senior Iranian official said on Monday Tehran was ready to help and that he was certain Ramadi would be “liberated”.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, told Reuters: “If the Iraqi government officially asks the Islamic Republic of Iran … to carry out any step that helps Iraq to confront [Isis] … then Iran will meet this call.”
Nouri said the same groups that took part in the liberation of Tikrit would take part in the Anbar operation, alongside Iraqi security forces and local pro-government Sunni fighters.
He said the battle would be drawn out and required good reconnaissance, planning and arms provisions, as well as fighters experienced in guerrilla warfare. “It’s an existential battle for us,” he said.
It also appears to be an existential battle for Isis, which has flooded Anbar with about 5,000 fighters, including 1,200 Arab and foreign militants, according to Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based expert on the militant group. “It’s a battle to settle the score between the Hashd and Daesh,” he said.
Isis condemns the Hashd as servants of Iran and has already executed over 400 “awakening” members and civilians in its rampage through Ramadi. The group now threatens multiple military encampments in the area, including the Habbaniya base, which houses American military advisers.