A Look At How Iraq Can Recapture Ramadi

Displaced Sunnis, who fled the violence in the city of Ramadi, arrive at the outskirts of Baghdad, April 17, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

Hayder Al-Khoei, Reuters: To recapture Ramadi from Islamic State, Iraq must use this formula

The fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, is a major defeat for the Iraqi security forces. It follows a period in which a number of strategic advances have been made by Iraqi forces elsewhere in the north and east of the war-torn country. Dreams of an offensive to defeat Islamic State in Mosul this year will now be crushed. Iraq will instead focus its resources and attention on liberating Ramadi, which lies just 60 miles to the east of Baghdad.

The complex realities on the ground will also lead to difficult choices being made on all sides of the conflict. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s approval to send in the Shi’ite-dominated Hashid Shaabi paramilitary forces to the Sunni-dominated Anbar region will worry many, but it comes at the request of local Sunnis who are desperate to defend their areas against Islamic State. The Anbar governor, provincial council and local tribes have publically asked Baghdad to send in these paramilitary forces to support Iraq’s security forces and Sunni tribesmen.

WNU Editor: The Islamic State and Iraq's Shiite militias are definitely on a collision course .... ISIS and Iran-backed Shia militias are on a collision course outside of Ramadi (Reuters). And while I do suspect that this combined force of Iraqi military personnel/Shiite militias/U.S. air power will use the "Tikrit model" to kick ISIS out from Ramadi ... the problem in Ramadi will then be the same problem in today's Tikrit .... winning the peace .... After Wresting Tikrit From ISIS, Iraqis Face Sectarian and Tribal Tensions (New York Times)