Iraq's Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi listens to a translation during a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
Reuters: Iraq's Abadi keeps Iran at arm's length in war on Islamic State
BAGHDAD (Reuters)- - As fighting in Iraq raged last summer, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani came across unexpected opposition to his plans to defeat Islamic State.
Soleimani is the commander of Iran's al-Quds brigade and has been a key figure in the fight against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq. That fight has been led not by Iraq's army but by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias.
But in August, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Soleimani that a planned assault on the Sunni city of Ramadi should be left to the Iraqi army, according to a government official and two diplomats.
Abadi, a 64-year-old Shi'ite, wanted the militias to stay away to avoid inflaming ethnic tensions, the sources said.
Abadi's office declined to comment on the story, which has been repeated in Baghdad's diplomatic circles for months. Three Iraqi politicians denied it ever happened.
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WNU Editor: If true .... I am not surprised by this move from the Iraqi Prime Minister. Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani's battlefield strategy is more scorch-earth, and his tactics would all but alienate the Sunni community in Iraq thereby making any hope of reconciliation in the future impossible.
2 comments:
Abadi sounds promising, at least a little.
Most of this article is wishful thinking on the authors and some westerners part. The key question briefly touched on and not developed is "where is Qassem" and why has he dropped out of sight?
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