generalspeaking

ISIS in Ignominious Defeat ... ?

"Daesh [Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham] does remain on the defensive. We've seen similar attacks in Ramadi over the last several months which the Iraqi Security Forces have been able to repel, and we see this one being similar to those."
Marine Brig.-Gen. Thomas D. Weidley, chief of staff, U.S. command

"There is continuous air cover that will help ground troops there hold their positions while waiting for support from other forces and the Popular Mobilisation Units  [Shia militias]." 
"[Pro-government forces are to] hold their positions and preserve them and not allow Daesh (IS) to extend to other areas in Ramadi,"
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi

On Friday, ISIL jihadis were reported to have captured the main government compound in Ramadi, capital of the country's Anbar province. They torched the police headquarters and triumphantly raised their flag over the government compound. Islamic State was supposed to be on its back heels, suffering losses as a result of the U.S.-led air strikes coordinating with the Iraqi military being aided by Iranian Shiite militias, by Hezbollah, by the al-Quds Republican Guard strategists.

Instead, they are wracking up victories, even while their leader is said to be mortally wounded, and the terrorist group's second-in-command has been killed in an airstrike in northern Iraq. It has been officially confirmed that Abu Alaa al-Afari was killed in the city of Tal Afar; the U.S. Central Command has acknowledged the airstrike and can take credit for it, though it also insists it had no intention of striking a mosque where al-Afari and other leaders had gathered.

This death is supposed to represent a serious blow to the Islamic State leadership. That hardly seems to be reflected in the advances that Islamic State has succeeded with of late. And now, on another front, of public relations on the one hand, and spreading fear on the other, ISIS has been sending its members on sea voyages -- joining genuine refugee migrants in their desperate plight to flee the conflict ISIS is responsible for -- across the Mediterranean to inflict themselves on Europe.

Marine Brig.-Gen. Weidley stated his confidence that though ISIS had executed a "complex attack" on Ramadi, it was his opinion as the U.S. command chief of staff leading the campaign against ISIS, that they would not capture the compound. The Iraqi army and police control most of the key facilities, the infrastructure and roadways in the area. ISIS for its part was simply inflating the significance of its scant gains.

It seems that the trust of Prime Minister al-Abadi that his words would be heeded by his loyal Iraqi military troops has been betrayed by a discomforting reality. That, once again, as they did over a year ago in Mosul, his troops melted away. The police and the military, after days of intense fighting, appear to have decided that a retreat, however chaotic was their best discretionary option. As the capital of Iraq's largest province, a mere 70 miles west of Baghdad, the fall of Ramadi is no minor consideration.

Islamic State has issued a statement that it had "purged the entire city", that it had taken the 8th Brigade army base as well as tanks and missile launchers left behind by troops. Haven't we seen this play previously? Confirmed by a source in the Anbar governor's office, that Ramadi now is under Islamic State full control. All government troops have withdrawn their opposing presence. Most retreated to a military base east of Ramadi, in the city of Khalidiya.

They were inconveniently running out of ammunition and were unable to repel the onslaughts by ISIS, claimed the source. Augmented by footage posted on social media illustrating the clamour and the terror with military vehicles speeding off and away from Ramadi, soldiers hanging desperately on the sides of the vehicles, escaping what they imagine to be ISIS disposition of enemy combatants. They had been spurred to flee in the wake of a number of suicide bomb attacks.

When four almost simultaneous explosions on the week-end struck police defending southern Ramadi's Malaab district. After which three additional suicide bombers drove their explosives-packed vehicles into the provincial military headquarters gate. ISIS now controls over half of Anbar territory. The province represents a huge stretch west from the capital to the Syrian border, with key roads linking Iraq to Syria and to Jordan.