US: Iraqi forces lack will to fight ISIL

Paul Alex · 2015-05-24T16:28:23+00:00

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter has criticised Iraqi forces for showing no will to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group during the fall of Ramadi, in comments dismissed as "baseless" by a senior Iraqi legislator. Carter told CNN's State of the Union programme on Sunday that the Iraqi army failed to take on ISIL despite having a numerical advantage. "The Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight ... they vastly outnumbered the opposing force and yet they withdrew from the site," Carter said. "Iraqi officials are blaming the US for not delivering crucial weapons well before ISIL mounted their offensive. According to them, the US could have stopped the fall of Mosul," he said. Carter's comments were rejected by a senior Iraqi lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, who said the Pentagon chief's comments were "unrealistic and baseless". Zamili, who heads the Iraqi parliamentary defence and security committee, said the US should bear much of the blame for Ramadi's fall for its failure to provide "good equipment, weapons and aerial support" to the soldiers. He said the US military was seeking to "throw the blame on somebody else", the Associated Press news agency reported. Carter said that the US was continuing to provide air strikes and supply Iraqi forces with training and equipment, but Washington was keeping a close watch on the situation. "Air strikes are effective, but neither they nor anything we can do can substitute for the Iraqis' will to fight," Carter said. "They're the ones who have to beat ISIL and then keep them beat." "If there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support we're giving to the Iraqi forces, we'll make that recommendation." Source: Aljazeera

Thread starter Paul Alex
Start date May 24, 2015

Paul Alex

JF-Expert Member

May 24, 2015

TUJITEGEMEE

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