Resurgent Isis forces purge Ramadi
Islamic State (Isis) militants searched door to door for policemen and pro-government fighters and threw bodies in the Euphrates River in a bloody purge yesterday after capturing the strategic city of Ramadi, their biggest victory since overrunning much of northern and western Iraq last year.
About 500 civilians and soldiers died in the extremist killing spree after the final push for Ramadi began on Saturday, authorities said.
Responding to a call from Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, hundreds of Iranian-allied Shiite militiamen rushed to a military base near Ramadi, the capital of overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar province, to prepare for an assault to try to retake the city, Anbar officials said.
The order came despite Obama administration concerns that the presence of Shiite fighters in the Sunni-dominated region could spark sectarian bloodshed. Until now the defence of Anbar has been in the hands of the Iraqi military fighting alongside Sunni tribesmen, who al Abadi’s Shiiteled government had vowed to arm and support – something it has done only sporadically.
Shiite militias have been key to victories against Isis on other fronts north of Baghdad in recent months. But they have also been widely criticised over accusations of extrajudicial killings of Sunnis, as well as of looting and torching Sunni property — charges militia leaders deny. In the face of Isis brutality some Sunnis appeared ready to accept help even from the Shiite militiamen.
‘‘We welcome any group, including Shiite militias, to come and help us in liberating the city from the militants,’’ said Sunni tribal leader Naeem al Gauoud, who fought to defend Ramadi and criticised what he called ‘‘lack of good planning by the military’’.
But Abu Ammar, another Anbar native who owns a grocery store in Ramadi, said he saw no difference between Isis’ brutal practices and those of Shiite militiamen. ‘‘If the Shiite militias enter Ramadi they will do the same things being done by Daesh,’’ he said, using an Arabic acronym for Isis. ‘‘In both cases we will be either killed or displaced. For us, the militias and Isis militants are two faces of the same coin.’’
The fall of Ramadi prompted Iran’s Defence Minister, General Dossein Dehghan, to make a surprise visit to Baghdad for urgent talks with Iraqi leaders. He met with al Abadi, who praised Iran’s support for Iraq in the face of the militants.
The loss of Ramadi was a stunning defeat for Iraq’s security forces and military, which fled as Isis overwhelmed their last holdout positions despite the support of United States-led air strikes.
Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers desperate to reach safety gripping onto their sides.
Since Saturday, when the battle for the city entered its final stages, an estimated 500 people have been killed, both civilians and military, said a spokesman for the Anbar provincial government, Muhannad Haimour. The figures could not be independently confirmed, but Islamic State militants have in the past killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers in the aftermath of their major victories.
Some 8,000 people also fled the city, Haimour said. It was not immediately clear how many people remained in Ramadi — once a city of 850,000 that has been draining population for months amid fighting with the extremists besieging it.