The Battle for Ramadi
Darko Lazar
‘The battle for Ramadi' is a phrase many in the world are familiar with.
The city in western Iraq was the setting for a major battle between the British imperialists and the Ottomans as far back as 1917.
Since then, the players battling for control over Iraq have changed, or, in some cases, the flags have at the very least.
The modern-day fight for Anbar's provincial capital can be traced back to 2004, when insurgents opened up a front in the city during the American siege of Fallujah, which sits southeast of Ramadi and is now a major Daesh stronghold.
That battle would be replayed in April 2006, and lasted until November of that year.
Almost a decade later, American bombs were once again falling on Ramadi. This time, it was in an apparent attempt to drive out Daesh, which had risen from the foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria. The terror group later expanded its grip with the help of disgruntled local residents in Anbar and a weak central government in Baghdad - courtesy of the nearly decade-long US occupation of Iraq.
For Washington, this was another golden opportunity to send its number one global export to the Middle East - the US military.
Modest estimates currently put the number of American combat troops in Anbar at over 3,000.
The US War Secretary, Ash Carter, would have liked to see more, accusing the Iraqis of lacking the "will" to confront Daesh after the militants overran Ramadi in May of last year.
However, last summer's spat between Washington and Baghdad over who was to blame for the fall of Ramadi now appears to be a distant memory.
Earlier this week, the Iraqi flag was hoisted over the government complex in central Ramadi after the country's military, counter terrorism units and local tribesmen, backed by the US-led coalition, wrestled back control of the city.
But this did not happen before the most effective fighting force against Daesh in Iraq was kept out of the battle for Ramadi.
The Popular Mobilization Units, which have played an instrumental role in key battles against Daesh, were barred from the Ramadi operation.
"Let's not forget that the Popular Mobilization Units sacrificed a lot of lives, dismantling bombs surrounding Ramadi. The Popular Mobilization Units played a major role in liberating a lot of areas surrounding Ramadi and other areas in the greater Anbar region," said Bassem Abu Tabikh, a member of Iraq's ruling State of Law Coalition.
According to Abu Tabikh, the Popular Mobilization Units, "made the Ramadi battle a lot easier, paving the way for the city to be liberated in nearly four months."
Sunni lawmakers in Baghdad had insisted that the Popular Mobilization Units be kept away from Ramadi in order to avoid inflaming already existing sectarian tensions in Anbar.
But their exclusion has added to concerns that the Americans and their allies are substituting Daesh by carving-up a piece of newly-occupied territory, stretching from Iraq's western province of Anbar to north-eastern Syria, where Washington deployed a contingent of special operations units late last year.
None of this should take away from the efforts of the Iraqis who did take part in the liberation of Ramadi.
During grueling battles, Iraqi forces fought their way into the center of the city, navigating through booby-trapped structures left behind by the terrorists who often used civilians as human shields.
Now, as the Ramadi operation begins to wind down, everyone is eagerly awaiting the main event - the battle for Iraq's second city of Mosul.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who arrived in Ramadi by helicopter a day after the city was recaptured, vowed that the liberation of Mosul would be the "final blow" to Daesh.
"2016 will be the year of the final victory and the end of the ISIS presence in Iraq", Dr. Abadi said.
Abu Tabikh thinks that the Premier's promises are realistic - to a certain degree.
"With Ramadi liberated, they can enter Mosul. But there is one major obstacle and that is the Turkish presence near Mosul", he said.
Ankara invaded northern Iraq last month in the most blatant attempt yet by Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan to raise the Turkish flag where the Ottoman one had once flown.
"Why did the US allow the Turks to enter, when they supposedly created a coalition to fight Daesh? [The Turkish presence] is an even bigger problem than Daesh", Abu Tabikh added.
And as the ‘medicine killing the patient' scenario becomes more evident in the US-led coalition's role against Daesh, celebrating the demise of the terrorists may be somewhat premature, with colonial ambitions and the revival of former empires taking center stage.
Source: al-Ahed news
