Fresh clashes erupt in western Iraq
By Kadhem al-Attabi and Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
07.01.2014 published here
Baghdad (dpa) - Fresh clashes erupted Tuesday in restive western Iraq between tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants trying to enter the city of Ramadi, local media reported.
The fighting took place in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, as militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were trying to enter the city.
Residents blew up a bridge in eastern Ramadi to prevent militias from entering, a police official told the Alsumaria news website.
At least 10 ISIL members were killed in several parts of Ramadi, including senior ISIL fighter Khaled Ali Nasser.
The militants were apparently taking advantage of tensions in Anbar after security forces cleared out a Sunni protest camp in Ramadi last week. They have taken control of Fallujah, the most populous city in the province and one that US forces captured in a fierce battle in April 2004.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday urged people living in Fallujah to expel al-Qaeda militants before security forces storm the city. The army withdrew from Anbar after breaking up the protest and before ISIL militants seized Fallujah and some areas in Ramadi.
Also on Tuesday, at least 11 people were killed and 56 injured in bombings and attacks in the central Baquba city and northern Kirkuk.
Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr called on residents of Anbar not to support terrorists and to report them. He called on the military to "spare the cities and civilians the sufferings of war."
It was al-Sadr's second appeal to the army since tensions began in Anbar last week.
Al-Sadr, who has been an influential figure in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 US-led invasion, urged al-Maliki last year to engage in direct talks with demonstrators and listen to their demands.
The latest strife in the country also raised questions in Washington about how the United States should respond.
Anbar was the site of major US operations during the 2003 invasion. The US government has said it will speed up the delivery of military equipment to Iraq, including air-to-surface Hellfire missiles as well as more reconnaissance drones.
That equipment will reach Iraq by spring, but in the coming weeks 10 drones would be delivered and another 48 in the course of the year, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Carney said beyond sending weapons the US was in contact with Iraq's political leaders "about how we can continue to support their efforts to defeat our common enemy."
General Ray Odierno, the US Army's chief of staff, emphasized that the US response to the fighting would not include sending troops.
"This is not the time to put American troops in," Odierno said Tuesday in a speech to the National Press Club. "Our goal right now is to let (the Iraqis) take care of this problem."
Odierno, who led US forces at the height of the war in Iraq, said he was disappointed that Iraqi forces have lost Fallujah. He still believed Iraq had the potential to become a strong US partner in the Middle East, but he added that the current situation made that goal look "a little bit shaky."
Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, said Tuesday there were many ways the US could help in Iraq without sending in combat troops.
“We should be sending people over there to help them and give them assistance in training, give them assistance in how to handle this,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill, according to Defense News.
On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone with al-Maliki and the Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi.
Biden told the premier that the United States "stands with Iraq in its fight against [ISIL] ... and expressed concern for those Iraqis who are suffering at the hands of terrorists," the White House said.
The widening clashes have raised the prospect of a return to the sectarian violence that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. According to UN estimates, 8,868 people were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in Iraq in five years.
