Battle Of Ramadi 2015: Fall Of Iraqi City To Islamic State Comes As U.S. Asks For Patience

U.S. officials are concerned after the battle of Ramadi. 2015 has proven to be the year in which the Iraqi town, where so many American soldiers lost their lives in 2006, was lost to the Islamic State (ISIS).

Over the weekend, ISIS moved into the city and U.S. trained Iraqi security forces scattered to save their lives. Despite continued coalition air bombings for the past nine months, the terrorist organization is gaining ground inside an unstable Iraqi government.

On Monday, Shia militia were gathering East of the city in an attempt regain control after the Battle of Ramadi. 2015 has seen many of the gains made by U.S. troops at the height of Iraq War lost, due to lack of a clear strategy from the West. The air campaign seems to be doing little to stop ISIS’ advance.

To make matters worse, the fragile Iraqi government — led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi — asked for help from Iran-backed Sunni forces to turn the tide. According to a report from BBC, approximately 500 people were killed in the city located about 70 miles West of the capital, Baghdad.

In a statement, the head of the Anbar provincial council, Sabah Karhout said about 3,000 Shia fighters had arrived in Anbar province to join Iraqi forces and take part in “the liberation of all Ramadi areas in which IS militants took positions.”

The involvement of Sunni fighters in the conflicted region is raising concerns of increased sectarian violence. The U.S. believe the situation can be reversed, however, Iraqi officials are not so optimistic that the Battle of Ramadi can be undone in 2015.

At the same time, the involvement of Iran backing Shia fighters has significantly weakened Prime Minister’s Abadi’s tenuous position.

“Abadi does not have a strong challenge from Iraq’s Sunnis or Iraqi Kurds,” said Ahmed Ali, an Iraqi analyst in Washington with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, according to the New York Times. “It’s from the Shia side.”

Between June and November 2006, 5,500 U.S. Marines and soldiers, alongside about 2,000 Iraqi security forces, fought to take Ramadi from insurgents, resulting in more than 80 Americans killed. However, Ramadi was never fully in coalition forces hands.

According to CNN’s Peter Monsoor, the fall of Ramadi in 2015 is highly significant for ISIS.

“Ramadi is considered by ISIS to be part of its caliphate that now stretches from northern Syria to central Iraq. It is a key communications center along the Euphrates River corridor and the capital of al-Anbar province, a Sunni area in western Iraq that U.S. troops struggled to pacify for several years after the U.S. invasion in 2003.”

“Ramadi is also the home to the Awakening, the tribal movement that did so much to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner to ISIS, in conjunction with the surge of U.S. forces in 2007-2008. The tribes that sided with the United States during that period are now subject to swift and deadly retribution, and their suffering will make it much less likely that Sunni tribes will once again battle the Islamists for control of their homeland.”

Despite the admission by the Obama administration that the fall of Ramadi is a setback, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his confidence that the situation can be reversed, vowing that Iraqi forces will take the city back.

Pentagon spokesman Col Steven Warren asked for patience in the face of adversity, “This is a difficult, complex, bloody fight. And there’s going to be victories and setbacks. We will retake Ramadi.”

Only time will tell whether the Battle of Ramadi in 2015 has already been decided in favor of ISIS.

[Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]