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Iraq general: driving al-Qaida from Fallujah will take a few days Iraq government launches air strike on al-Qaida allies in Ramadi
(about 3 hours later)
A senior Iraqi military commander has said that it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities. Iraqi government forces battling an al-Qaida offensive have launched an air strike on the city of Ramadi, killing 25 Islamist militants, according to local officials.
Lieutenant General Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Anbar military command, told state television on Sunday that "two to three days" were needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Fleih added that pro-government Sunni tribes were leading the operations while the army offered aerial cover and logistics on the ground. He did not elaborate on the operations. Local government officials in western Anbar province have met tribal leaders to urge them to help repel al-Qaida-linked militants who have taken over parts of Ramadi and Falluja, strategic Iraqi cities on the Euphrates river.
"The quiet and safe life that is sought by the Anbaris will not be completely restored before few hours or two to three days, God willing," Fleih said. Al-Qaida's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been steadily tightening its grip in the vast Sunni-dominated Anbar province in recent months in a bid to create a Sunni Muslim state straddling the frontier with Syria.
Residents say it has been quiet since Saturday night in Fallujah, where militants still control the centre of the city.m Sporadic clashes took place on Sunday in and around Ramadi. But last week's capture of positions in Ramadi and large parts of Falluja was the first time in years that Sunni insurgents had taken ground in the province's major cities and held their positions for days.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Levant has seized control of Fallujah and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province. Ramadi was a stronghold of Sunni insurgents during the US-led war. Al-Qaida militants largely took over both cities last week and have been fending off incursions by government forces there since. Local officials and tribal leaders in Ramadi said 25 suspected militants were killed in the air force strike, which targeted eastern areas of the city early on Sunday.
ISIL is also one of the strongest rebel units in Syria, where it has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in territories it holds and kidnapped and killed anyone it deems critical of its rule. Also on Saturday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in a Shia-dominated neighbourhood in Lebanon. "As a local government we are doing our best to avoid sending the army to Falluja … now we are negotiating outside the city with the tribes to decide how to enter the city without allowing the army to be involved," said Falih Eisa, a member of Anbar provincial council.
Tensions in Anbar have run high since 28 December, when Iraqi security forces arrested a Sunni lawmaker sought for terrorism charges. Two days later, the government dismantled a months-old, anti-government Sunni protest camp, sparking clashes with militants. Tension has been running high across Anbar – which borders Syria and was the heart of Iraq's Sunni insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion – since Iraqi police broke up a Sunni protest last week, resulting in deadly clashes.
To ease the tension, the Shia-led government withdrew army forces from the cities. Sunni lawmakers see the army as a tool of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to target his rivals and consolidate power. In Falluja, ISIL's task has been made easier by disgruntled tribesmen who have joined its fight against the government.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said America would support Iraq combat al-Qaida, but without sending troops on ground. The US was "very, very concerned" by the fighting, Kerry told reporters as he left Jerusalem for Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday in his efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The US recently supplied Iraq with Hellfire missiles often used against militants. Further west, across the porous border with Syria, al-Qaida fighters have captured swaths of land in the north and are battling with other Islamist brigades as well as the Syrian army.
In Ramadi, where tribesmen and the army have been working together to counter the al-Qaida insurgents, ISIL snipers positioned themselves on rooftops and fought small battles in the city.
ISIL fighters held on to their positions in the outskirts of Falluja and have used police and government vehicles inside the city for patrols, some flying a black flag associated with al-Qaida from the vehicles.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said on Sunday that Iraq's government and tribes would be successful in their fight against al-Qaida, and said Washington was not considering sending troops back to Iraq, two years after their withdrawal.
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