U.S. to Send Rockets to Iraq for ISIS Fight
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — The United States is rushing 1,000 antitank rockets to the Iraqi military to help combat the massive suicide vehicle bombs that Islamic State militants used in capturing the provincial capital of Ramadi, a first step as the Obama administration weighs a range of difficult options to help its beleaguered ally.

The deployment of the weapons, expected to arrive in early June after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq asked for them during a visit to Washington last month, comes as the defeated Iraqi security forces regroup outside the city. A senior State Department official said Wednesday that Iraqis were “licking their wounds a bit” as they worked with American advisers to begin planning a counterattack.

Obama administration officials have called the fall of Ramadi a huge setback, but they have sought to quell critics in the region and on Capitol Hill by portraying the defeat as a temporary blow that will not change the overall strategy for fighting the Islamic State or lessen the administration’s support of Mr. Abadi’s government.

Still, a day after Mr. Obama gathered his national security team to discuss the latest developments in Iraq and how to retake Ramadi, officials across the government expressed dismay at the rapid collapse of the Iraqi security forces in Ramadi and the tough decisions ahead. The Islamic State is at the same time making substantial gains across the border in Syria.

“You’d have to be delusional not to take something like this and say, what went wrong and how do you fix it?” said the senior State Department official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration assessments and plans. “This is an extremely serious situation.”

The immediate American objective over the past four days, the official said, has been to work with Iraqi political leaders and commanders to consolidate the retreating Iraqi forces — many of whom were physically and psychologically traumatized by car bombs roughly the magnitude of those used in the Oklahoma City attack in 1995 — and prevent any further retreat.

American warplanes are flying round-the-clock missions over the city, hunting fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, who were setting up defensive positions or trying to seize vehicles and other equipment abandoned by the Iraqi troops.

The options the administration is considering in Iraq include training a cadre of Iraqi Special Forces troops to help American bombs get to their targets faster and expanded the training of regular Iraqi security forces.

The training of Iraqi Special Forces would be an alternative to using American troops to accompany Iraqi forces on the battlefield to call in American and allied bombing attacks. So far, Mr. Obama is not considering using Americans to call in airstrikes, the State Department official said, although Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has pushed the idea.

Mr. Abadi complained during his visit to Washington that it had been taking too long for the United States to carry out airstrikes on behalf of Iraqi forces.

The administration continues to reject any use of American troops in ground combat, as do Republicans on Capitol Hill, although there are some 3,000 Americans on the ground in Iraq in advising, logistics and intelligence roles.

The absence of air controllers poses challenges for urban warfare, particularly when Iraqi troops are battling so close to their enemy that the two sides are intermingled, making it difficult for American pilots flying overhead to identify Islamic State militants.

The other option, expanding American efforts to train and equip Iraqi security forces as well as Sunni tribal fighters, is also problematic. Doing so would most likely require even more American advisers and trainers on the ground in Iraq.

A major flaw in the Iraqi security forces remains the lack of credible Sunni ground forces. Sunni politicians have criticized Mr. Abadi for being too weak to secure long-promised reforms, including the establishment of national guard units, a move that American officials have encouraged as a way to empower local Iraqis but that is still being debated by the Iraqi Parliament.

Iraq has budgeted to train and equip 8,000 Sunni fighters in Anbar Province, and about 5,000 of them have been deployed so far there, American officials said.

In Iraq on Wednesday, government security forces, joined by Shiite militiamen from Baghdad and other parts of the country, continued to gather at a base in Habbaniya, east of Ramadi in Anbar. At the same time, the government put out a call for new recruits to join the depleted army.

Mr. Abadi is also looking beyond the United States for help. He flew to Russia on Wednesday in an effort to secure more military support. Russia has been a supplier to Iraq of weapons, including fighter jets, helicopters and smaller arms, for some time.

When Islamic State militants stormed an operations center in Anbar on Sunday, they captured a large cache of weapons, including arms supplied by both the United States and Russia, according to a security official who had been stationed there.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in a phone call last Friday, as the attack was underway, assured Mr. Abadi of other accelerated security assistance to combat the militants, according to a White House statement. The heavy weaponry includes AT-4 shoulder-held rockets to counter the massive car bombs the Islamic State detonated in the attack on Ramadi’s city center.

The Ramadi offensive involved 30 car bombs, including 10 that were each roughly the size of those in the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and that “took out entire city blocks” in Ramadi, the State Department official said.

On Sunday, Iraqi reinforcements sent into the city center came under immediate fire and quickly started to retreat, the official said. That set in motion a chain reaction, with other Iraqi forces who had been holding in place also fleeing the city.

“Nobody is kidding themselves about what ISIL was able to pull off last week,” the State Department official said, acknowledging not only the militants’ victory on the ground but also a major propaganda triumph. “We’re still trying to piece together exactly what happened there.”

“We’ve never seen something like this,” said the official, referring to ISIL, and noting that many of the 22,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries who have been drawn to Iraq and Syria have largely joined the Islamic State rather than other terror groups. “It thrives on the notion of an expanded caliphate. They see their entire campaign as a war of flags.”

As American advisers in Iraq sought to help Iraqi forces regroup, administration officials voiced new concerns about 3,000 Shiite militia fighters, many supported by Iran, who have arrived at a military base near Ramadi as part of the effort to reclaim the city. American officials say they will continue their air campaign as long as the Shiite militias are led by the Iraqis, and not by Iranian advisers.

“We have been clear that the decision to use these forces is one of the government of Iraq to make in conjunction with Anbari leaders,” a White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, said on Wednesday. “But we’ve also been very clear that all forces there should be under the command and control of the Iraqi security forces.”

IS勢力擴張 歐巴馬不認輸

激進組織伊斯蘭國（IS）十七日攻下伊拉克安巴省省會拉馬迪，且已占據敘利亞大半國土。美國總統歐巴馬不認為美方挫敗，表示拉馬迪失守是「戰術性失利」（tactical setback），但承認為對抗IS，需要做得更多。

歐巴馬十九日接受「大西洋」雜誌專訪時說：「我不認為我們居下風，無疑這是個『戰術性失利』。拉馬迪很長一段時間處於易遭攻擊狀態，主因是當地沒有我方訓練或增援的安全部隊。」他對於處理IS的方式並無後悔，強調收復失土的主導權在伊拉克手上。

歐巴馬說，遜尼派為主的拉馬迪長期反抗什葉派的伊拉克政府，導致當地民兵缺乏訓練及對當局的信賴。他重申不會擴大美軍協助打擊IS的部隊規模，但拉馬迪及敘國古城巴邁拉相繼失守，顯示兩國長期戰火及政府腐敗，讓軍隊士氣渙散，面對IS時不堪一擊。

美國雖不願全面介入戰事，但運送一千枚反戰車火箭至伊拉克，打擊IS攻城掠地的汽車炸彈，攻下拉馬迪也是使用此法。

然而主戰的共和黨參議員馬侃批評：「我們的道德呢？我們的秩序呢？對數以千計被殺害、流離失所及生活無著的人們的關注呢？而我們竟不願冒點險，這太可恥了。」歐巴馬呼籲各界要有耐心：「我們預期戰事絕非一年半載能夠結束，現在才八個月而已。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/world/middleeast/us-to-send-rockets-to-iraq-for-isis-fight.html

Graphic：How ISIS Captured Ramadi
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html

2015-05-23．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯莊蕙嘉