Pentagon: Iraqi forces ‘chose to withdraw’ from Ramadi
The Pentagon has criticized the Iraqi military troops for “choosing to withdraw” from the major city of Ramadi as Washington and Baghdad are engaged in a blame game over the retreat of forces.
Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said on Tuesday that there was a problem of “both low morale amongst the troops and there was a problem with the command structure.”
“The command and control structure does not appear to have been fully up to the task,” he added.
Last week, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter made similar remarks, saying that the Iraqi forces had no will to fight the ISIL terrorist group.
"What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter said.
"They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight, they withdrew from the site, and that says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves," Carter argued.
Ramadi, located at about 110 kilometers west of capital Baghdad, fell into the hands of ISIL. The Iraqi military has launched several counter-offensives in bid to take the strategic city back.
On Tuesday, the White House also confirmed the Pentagon’s chief remarks.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the issue a “problem we’ve seen in the past.”
In an estimate by the Pentagon, when Iraqi troops abandoned Ramadi, they left behind a half-dozen tanks, a similar number of artillery pieces, a larger number of armored personnel carriers and about 100 wheeled vehicles like Humvees.
The US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria since last year. However, the terror network is controlling large parts of the two countries.
In an interview with Press TV, Iraq's ex-national security advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie criticized the US-led airstrikes against ISIL as ineffective.
Rubaie said that most of the warplanes return to their bases without engaging terrorist targets, urging Washington to immediately deliver the weapons and military hardware that Baghdad has paid for.
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