U.S. backs tactics on taking back Ramadi

Iraq’s slow approach viewed as justified

The U.S. military defended Iraq’s slow approach to retaking Ramadi, a key Sunni city seized by the Islamic State six weeks ago, saying careful planning and coordination are needed to ensure a decisive win.

“I think they are appropriately cautious about assembling and preparing the right force to make it happen,” Marine Col. John McDonough, commander of a coalition task force in Anbar province, said in a telephone interview from western Iraq.

Critics have expressed concern about Iraqi security forces who largely abandoned Ramadi without a fight May 17.

“It looks to me like everything is just in paralysis,” said Michael O’Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.

The delays allowed Islamic State militants to build up defenses in the city and wreak havoc on civilians who remain. McDonough said those concerns should be weighed against the need to be successful once an attack is launched.

The pace of the stalled offensive has frustrated critics of the U.S. strategy and Iraqi politicians who want to see the Islamic State expelled.

McDonough commands a task force at the Taqaddum military base in Anbar province, where the U.S.-led coalition established an outpost designed to help Iraq retake Ramadi and other parts of the region. Coalition airstrikes are wearing down the enemy and surveillance aircraft assist the Iraqis in getting a picture of Islamic State positions within Ramadi — helping to set the conditions for an offensive, McDonough said.