Region

BAGHDAD — A senior Daesh figure known as “the blind judge” has made an appearance in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, asserting the militant group’s dominion over it as security forces and Shiite militias prepare a counterattack.

Residents of Ramadi said a blind man with one hand and his head shrouded had delivered a speech in the Anbar provincial capital’s main mosque after evening prayers on Wednesday.

They did not know who he was but recognised him to be a senior figure because he was flanked by a large number of guards and said his accent indicated he was Iraqi.

Iraqi security expert Hisham Al Hashimi, who closely tracks the hardline insurgents, identified the man as Ali Attiya Al Jubouri, also known as Abu Asim, or “the blind judge of the Daesh”.

“This cleric who appeared in Ramadi yesterday is very famous,” Hashimi said. “He is the second highest religious authority after Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, and the fifth man in the organisation of Daesh.”

Daesh is an Arabic name for Islamic State.

Hashimi said the appearance of the blind judge was designed to win over residents of Ramadi, many of whom sided with the government and fended off the militants until they were finally overcome on May 17.

Scrambling to reverse the setback, Iraq’s government has deployed Shiite militias to Anbar despite concerns about a potential sectarian backlash from the province’s predominantly Sunni population.

Iraqi forces thwarted an attack by Daesh militants on their frontline position east of Ramadi on Thursday.

Police and pro-government tribal fighters on the front line in Husaiba Al Sharqiya, around 7km east of Ramadi, said the militants had tried to cut them off from behind by crossing the Euphrates River at dawn.

“They started the attack under cover of mortars and sniper shots, but we managed to abort it,” said Sunni tribal leader Amir Al Fahdawi. “We have enough troops deployed and a couple of tanks positioned near the bridge”.

South of Ramadi, Shiite militia fighters and police pressed an advance in Al Tash area late on Wednesday but came under attack from an Daesh suicide bomber driving an armoured vehicle packed with explosives.

Police sources said seven militiamen had been killed and the forces, mainly Shiite fighters known as Hashid Shaabi, were forced to retreat.

Iraq announced an operation this week aimed at driving the militants out of their remaining strongholds in Salahuddin province as well as Anbar, most of which is under Daesh control.

Shiite militias and Iraqi police were making steady advances on Thursday against Daesh militants southwest of the city of Samarra in Salahuddin province.

“The main goal of the operations is to cut all supply routes used by Daesh stretching between Samarra and Anbar,” said Khalid Al Khazraji, a local Hashid leader and chairman of security committee on Salahuddin provincial council. “Cleaning these areas will help further isolate Daesh terrorists inside Anbar and undermine their combatant abilities”.

Khazraji said at least 90 militants had been killed since the start of the operation on Tuesday. Army and hospital sources said at least 27 pro-government force had been killed, most of them from the Hashid Shaabi.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Wednesday stepped down as the international community's Mideast envoy, officials said, leaving a post that began with great promise but which struggled to deliver dramatic changes in its quest to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The departure reflected the dire state of Mideast peace efforts, which have been stalled for years and show no signs of resuming following the formation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government. A top Palestinian official said he was "happy" Blair was leaving, accusing him of ineffectiveness and caving in to Israeli pressure.

Officials familiar with the work of the Quartet in the region said Blair had written a letter to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to confirm his resignation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement, which was expected later Wednesday at a meeting of Quartet officials in Brussels. At midday Wednesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he could not yet confirm receipt of the resignation letter.

The Quartet — which includes the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — appointed Blair to the post in 2007 with the goal of helping develop the Palestinian economy and institutions. The mission was meant to prepare the groundwork for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a peace agreement.

But Blair quickly found himself fighting small battles with Israel over the movement of Palestinian goods and people in the West Bank, and dealing with the difficulties of a Gaza Strip ruled by the Hamas militant group and blockaded by Israel and Egypt. 

Hamas, which is shunned as a terrorist group by the US and EU, seized control of Gaza from the rival government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shortly before Blair took office.

When Blair first took office, then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas were conducting a round of peace talks that both sides have said made significant progress. But those talks ultimately failed, and since Netanyahu’s election in 2009, repeated attempts at reviving talks have flopped. Netanyahu’s new government is dominated by parliamentary hard-liners who oppose Palestinian independence, leaving the goal of a two-state solution as elusive as ever.

One official said Blair had suffered “frustration” with the limited authority of his mandate, which did not include a political role. The official also said that Blair felt his office has a strong leadership team and that now is the right time to move on.

According to his office’s website, Blair’s office succeeded in helping remove dozens of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, easing the movement of workers and Palestinian products to markets. He also helped boost tourism in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, helped secure thousands of permits for Palestinian laborers to work in Israel, helped engineer a $350 million mobile phone investment in the West Bank, creating thousands of jobs and also pressed Israel to allow limited exports out of blockaded Gaza.

Even so, his efforts often disappointed the Palestinians, who accused him of being ineffective and caving in to Israeli demands too easily.

“I’m happy that Tony Blair is leaving. For the entire eight years, Tony Blair didn’t make any contribution to Palestine,” said Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official. “He never proposed anything that the Israelis didn’t agree to and the entire time he only represented himself. And he worked only to satisfy the Israelis and the Americans.”

Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.

The official said that Blair’s resignation would go into effect in June, but that he hopes to play an “informal” role in promoting the Quartet’s vision of a two-state solution. One area where he could help is developing relations between Israel and the wider Arab world, the official said.

SANAA — Successive air strikes by Saudi-led coalition jets on Wednesday pounded a police commando headquarters in central Sanaa, killing at least 36 people and sending plumes of black smoke billowing across the capital.

The attacks were part of a military campaign by Saudi Arabia and its allies which started on March 26. They have been targeting Shiite rebels also known as Houthis that are allied to the forces of ousted president Ali Abdullah. The violence since then, including air strikes, has killed at least 2,000 people, according to a report released Wednesday by the by World Health Organisation.

While warplanes targeted rebel forces across the country on Wednesday, the Sanaa attack was particularity destructive. The site occupies an area the size of two football stadiums and is located in the centre of the city close to the presidential palace. 

An Associated Press reporter saw at least 15 ambulances rushing to the scene in a period of 30 minutes and thick black smoke covering the whole area, obstructing visibility.

According to security officials a few hundred police were at the site waiting to receive arms and ammunition before heading south to battle forces loyal to internationally-recognised President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Saudi.

The Houthi-controlled health ministry said in a statement that at least 36 members of the security forces were killed and at least 100 were wounded. The main Houthi television gave a similar death toll and said it was expected to rise.

Three soldiers inside the camp told the AP that in addition to special forces present during the attack, there were also numerous Houthi militiamen — many of them wearing traditional Yemeni clothes. When the jets struck, some people were lined up to receive weapons while others rested on the grass under small trees in the vast garden.

The bombs and missiles brought down at least three buildings inside the compound, damaged six armoured vehicles, and set fire across the camp. They also hit weapon depots inside the camp, causing a series of secondary explosions that residents said continued for nearly an hour.

The three men, along with security officials, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Blocks away, administrative buildings — including the empty Saudi embassy — and shops suffered damage, with metal shutters twisted off their frames, windows broken and doors blown off their hinges. Streets were littered with shattered glass, toppled street lights and overturned cars. Shops were closed and city streets were deserted.

Witnesses say planes also bombed a naval base in western Hodeida controlled by the Houthis. Saudi and allied jets also bombed the northern Houthi strongholds of Saada and Hajjah.

In a new report Wednesday, World Health Organisation Chief Margaret Chan said that Yemen’s conflict has left up to 2,000 people dead and 8,000 wounded, including hundreds of women and children, over the past 10 weeks. She did not specify how many of the dead were civilian.

Most recent UN estimates said that at least 1,037 civilians, including 130 women and 234 children, have been killed in the fighting.

Chan also said that the killings sometimes included whole families, giving the example of a 65-year-old woman named Fathiya who lost 13 members of her family in an attack that left her the only guardian of three surviving grandchildren.

There is a shortage of fuel, water, fuel and medical supplies, in addition to destroyed f health facilities, and 7.5 million people are in urgent need of medical help.

Earlier this week, international humanitarian group Oxfam warned that some 16 million people in Yemen don’t have access to clean water. Half a million people have been displaced across the country.

The campaign of air strikes has devastated rebel positions, ammunition depots and bases, but it has largely failed to pave the way for the recapture of the strategic southern city of Aden, which Hadi declared the country’s temporarily capital before fleeing to Saudi.

Hadi’s allied southern fighters managed on Tuesday to recapture the strategic city of Dhale, located near Aden.

On Wednesday, residents said that communications were down, except for landlines, and that fighting intensified on the city outskirts of the city between militias supporting Hadi and forces loyal to the Houthis and Saleh.

GAZA — Israel and Palestinian militants appeared to be pulling back on Wednesday from further hostilities after Israel responded with air strikes to a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.

No casualties were reported on either side of the border, and Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon blamed the rocket launching late on Tuesday on “elements in the Islamic Jihad” group in the Hamas Islamist-run enclave.

His comments followed Israeli media reports that infighting among Islamic Jihad militants may have precipitated the rocket firing without the permission of Hamas authorities.

The reports also said that Hamas, whose forces are dominant in the territory of 1.8 million Palestinians, had arrested Islamic Jihad members behind the missile strike, the deepest into Israel since the end of last year’s 50-day Gaza war.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman was not available to comment. Hamas officials had no comment on the reported arrests.

The projectile struck near the Israeli port city of Ashdod, some 20 kilometres from the Gaza frontier, Israeli security forces said, and hours after the attack there was still no claim of responsibility.

Israeli warplanes hit back early on Wednesday, striking four “terror infrastructures” in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. Gaza residents said the targets included training camps used by Islamic Jihad militants.

No further fighting was reported, and it appeared that Israel chose to attack evacuated or open areas in a signal to Hamas that it hoped to avoid escalation.

It also issued a warning that further rocket strikes would draw a more powerful response.

“If there is no quiet in Israel, the Gaza Strip will pay a very heavy price, which will cause anyone planning to challenge us to regret their actions,” Yaalon said in a statement.

In comments posted on a pro-Hamas website, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the group, said Israel was responsible for “the escalation last night and it must stop these foolish acts”.

Last year, fighters in Gaza launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel during a July-August war in which Israeli shelling and air strikes battered the small, coastal Palestinian enclave.

The region has been largely quiet since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that halted seven weeks of fighting.

GENEVA — Yemen faces a humanitarian catastrophe unless the Saudi-led coalition allows it to import and distribute vital food, fuel and medicines, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.

"Humanitarian agencies can do things, but it will be the tip of the iceberg," said Cedric Schweizer, outgoing head of the ICRC's delegation in Yemen.

"Most things are political decisions — access to fuel, ensuring that the importation of normal medicines for chronic diseases can be allowed, and food because 90 per cent of food is imported in Yemen."

Saudi-led forces began air strikes on Houthi forces in Yemen two months ago. They are enforcing inspections on ships entering Yemeni ports, saying they want to stop arms reaching Iran-backed Houthis.

Commercial fuel tankers must have access to ports and the distribution system for fuel must function, Schweizer told Reuters. Fuel is vital to run hospital generators and water pumping stations in the country of 26 million.

Only 5-10 per cent of usual imports has entered Yemen over the past two months of the conflict, which has killed more than 2,000 people, he said. Food prices have soared.

"If there is no fuel there will be no water very soon and if this is the case we have thousands of people, if not millions, at risk because there is no access to water," Schweizer said.

"If a solution is not found today it will be a big humanitarian catastrophe."

Schweizer was speaking after holding talks on the Yemen crisis with US officials and before heading for meetings in Tehran and Moscow.

"What we need is to mobilise these different countries who have an impact or who belong to the coalition to ensure that they take into consideration the needs of the civilian population," he said.

Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, residents said, the deadliest day of bombing in the war.

"We identify all of our movements to the coalition to make sure we are not targeted," Schweizer said.

The ICRC has 250 aid workers in Yemen. An ICRC surgical team is treating war wounded in Aden and the agency is providing food to 20,000 displaced families.

The ICRC is in touch with all tribes, clans and armed groups, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, Schweizer said.

BEIRUT — Damascus wants more coordination with Baghdad to combat Daesh fighters who control land in both countries, Syria's foreign minister said on Wednesday, days after the group seized a border crossing and overran a central Syrian city.

Daesh seized Al Tanf border crossing with Iraq last week and has taken over the desert city of Palmyra, the first time the group has captured a large population centre directly from the Syrian military.

Though Damascus and Baghdad share a close relationship with Shiite Islamist Iran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Mouallem's comments indicated Damascus was not happy with the level of Iraqi cooperation in the fight against Daesh.

Both countries realised they had to fight together, he said.

"But the coordination has not reached the threat level we are facing," he told a joint news conference in Damascus with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian, who also met President Bashar Assad.

Baghdad is coordinating with US forces to combat Daesh, an Al Qaeda offshoot which has taken territory from government forces in the north and west of the country. In Syria, US-led warplanes are carrying out an aerial campaign which they say is not coordinated with the Syrian military and has focused on areas outside of government control.

However Syria says it has been informed of attacks ahead of time and has criticised the US-led raids as ineffective, but has not opposed them.

Mouallem also said support from Syria's main allies Russia and Iran remained strong and that they would not hold back on helping Syria to remain "steadfast”.

Nalbandian is the third foreign minister to visit Damascus this year after trips by ministers from Iran and Belarus.

Syria hosts an Armenian population mainly in the north of the country and is also home to several Armenian churches. Both countries are hostile towards Turkey.

Syria blames its northern neighbour for funding and arming insurgents. Turkey has denied arming rebels or helping hardline Islamists. Armenia condemns Ankara for not recognising what it says was a genocide by Ottoman Turks 100 years ago.

Mouallem criticised Turkey for what he said were acts of aggression and for violating Syrian airspace.

He also dismissed comments by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday in which he warned Iraq and Syria risked further division if international efforts to tackle Daesh were not stepped up quickly.

"Our people are able to repel any attack and prevent any attempt to partition Syria," he said. He said France, which supports the four-year uprising against Assad, had supported terrorism and was conspiring against Syria.

BAGHDAD — Daesh extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday.

The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of the Daesh group in Anbar.

Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim, the spokesman for the joint military command, told The Associated Press the attacks took place outside the Daesh-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.

The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed for the Anbar offensive, he said.

Ibrahim added that the Daesh extremists used a sandstorm that engulfed most of Iraq on Tuesday night to launch the deadly wave of bombings. He said it was not clear how many suicide attackers were involved in the bombings but they hit the military from multiple directions.

Last month, the water station near Fallujah fell into the hands of Daesh militants — following attacks that also included multiple suicide bombings and that killed a general commanding the 1st Division and a dozen other officers and soldiers, he said.

Iraqi government forces recaptured the station a few days later. Fallujah lies to the east of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, which was captured by the Daesh militants nearly two weeks ago in what was a major, humiliating defeat for Iraqi troops at the hands of the extremists.

The Iraqi operation to retake Anbar, which is said to be backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, is deemed critical in regaining momentum in the fight against the Daesh.

The extremists captured Ramadi in Iraq and the Syrian ancient town of Palmyra earlier this month, showing that it is able to advance in both countries despite months of US-led air strikes. Capt. Andrew Caulk, a US air force spokesman in Qatar, told the AP it will continue to provide air support "to government-controlled Iraqi forces" throughout the country, including near Ramadi, where it has been carrying out air strikes for several months.

In Palmyra, Syrian activists said Daesh militants shot dead a group of detainees in the Roman theatre in the town's ancient ruins after gathering people to watch. They said Daesh gunmen killed at least 15 men after accusing them of having fought with President Bashar Assad's troops.

The incident — the first since the group captured the historic town — was reported by activists belonging to a Palmyra-based media collective and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The theatre is part of the 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins in Palmyra.

Syria's foreign minister also said Wednesday that his government is not pinning any hopes on the US-led coalition striking at Daesh group militants in his country.

At a news conference in Damascus, Walid Mouallem said the coalition was active in preventing the Kurdish town of Kobani from falling to the extremists last year but that this support seems to have "evaporated" after that.

The United States did nothing to prevent the ancient town of Palmyra in Syria or the province of Anbar in Iraq from falling into their hands, he said.

"We're not pinning any hopes on that alliance and anyone who does is living an illusion," Mouallem added.

Mouallem also said Iraq and Syria were fighting the same battle but added that security coordination between their two armies "has not reached the desired levels”.

Also Wednesday, Syrian activists said the Daesh group released two elderly Christian women who had been held along with dozens of others since February in northeastern Syria.

At the time, they kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians after overrunning several farming communities on the southern bank of the Khabur River in Hassakeh province.

The two women, who are 70 and 75 years old, were released on Tuesday and have now reached the northwestern city of Hassakeh, said Osama Edwards, the director of the Assyrian Network for Human Rights.

Another activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the two were likely released because of their poor health. Some of the captives had been released previously.

Edwards said the Daesh group is still holding 210 Assyrian Christians and is demanding $100,000 for each hostage.

BEIRUT — The Syrian air force hit an Daesh-controlled air base in Raqqa province on Tuesday, killing more than 140 militants, state media said, striking the jihadist group in its Syrian stronghold a week after it seized Palmyra from the government.

The city of Raqqa is seen as the de facto capital of the "caliphate" Daesh has declared in Syria and Iraq. The group has made notable gains in both countries this month, capturing both Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria.

It was not possible to independently verify the reported attack on the Tabqa airbase, which Daesh seized in August, killing scores of captive government soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the war, said a US-led coalition waging a separate campaign against Daesh had targeted the same area on Monday.

Daesh's takeover of Palmyra, also known as Tadmur, marked the first time the group had seized a city directly from government control. The other population centres it holds were mostly taken from rival insurgent groups in Syria's civil war.

Palmyra is strategically significant for reasons including its location at a crossroads of highways in the centre of Syria leading both to Homs and Damascus, President Bashar Assad's seat of power.

It also has a UNESCO World Heritage site. Daesh's capture of the city has raised fears its 2,000-year-old, Roman ruins could meet the same fate as ancient sites destroyed by the ultra-radical group in Iraq.

The Syrian antiquities chief told Reuters that Palmyra's ruins were so far undamaged. "The historic city is fine. There is no damage so far," said Maamoun Abdulkarim, citing contacts with people on the ground.

However, he said he was still afraid the jihadists would blow up ruins including tombs and the Temple of Bel, which could be viewed as idolatrous in its puritanical vision of Islam.

A short video posted by an account supportive of Daesh on YouTube on Tuesday claimed to show Palmyra after the jihadists took control.

The footage, mostly filmed without sound and people, showed the Palmyra’s ancient citadel, columns, colosseum, buildings and walls. One image showed black smoke rising behind ancient ruins but it did not appear that any of the historical sites had been obviously damaged by the week of fighting.

Daesh reinforcements

The United States has ruled out the idea of partnering with Assad in the fight against Daesh. It regards Assad as part of the problem and says he should leave power.

A Syrian army source said Daesh was trying to move combatants from its bastions in Raqqa and Deir Al Zor in eastern Syria to Palmyra.

He said Daesh would “certainly try” to make further gains after Palmyra but added: “We are not at all worried. It will not be able to advance towards the west.”

“In Palmyra, let’s say there are attempts to call up terrorists from Raqqa, Deir Al Zor,” said the source.

“There is notable [Daesh] activity, more than before, certainly, because after what happened in Tadmur, it will not halt its attempts to expand,” he said.

Daesh sustained heavy losses in an army attack near Palmyra on Monday, the source added.

The fall of Palmyra followed numerous attacks in recent months by Daesh on government-held areas in northern, southern and central Syria.

The Syrian state news agency also reported on Tuesday that the army had carried out an operation against Daesh in Sweida province, an area near the southern border with Jordan.

SANAA — Fighters backing Yemen's exiled government captured a city on the road to the port city of Aden, officials said Tuesday, their first significant victory since a Saudi-led coalition began targeting Shiite rebels in air strikes.

The fighters took Dhale, a significant gain as the city is home to the command centre of the 33rd Armoured Brigade, the country's largest army unit that had been loyal to former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has backed the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, in their campaign across Yemen that began in September.

Government-allied fighters seized tanks, rocket launchers and ammunition caches from the base at Dhale, some 120 kilometres from Aden, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists.

Footage from Dhale aired on the Saudi-funded Al Arabiya satellite news network showed fighters in one armoured vehicle flying the flag of once-independent South Yemen. The fighters, though allied with exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, also want an independent southern state in the country, which only was unified in 1990.

Dozens of fighters on both sides have been killed in intense clashes around Dhale in the past two weeks. Fighting between the two sides still raged Tuesday on the city's outskirts, officials said.

A Saudi-led coalition began targeting the Houthis and their allies March 26. The UN estimates that at least 1,037 civilians, including 130 women and 234 children, have been killed between March 26 and May 20 in the fighting.

Hadi's government in exile has declared several provinces of Yemen disaster zones, including Dhale, where all basic services have collapsed. Due to the violence and a Saudi-led sea-and-air blockade, most Yemenis face severe shortages of fuel, water, medicine and food.

In a new report, international humanitarian group Oxfam warned that some 16 million people in Yemen don't have access to clean water.

"This is equivalent to the populations of Berlin, London, Paris and Rome combined, all rotting under heaps of garbage in the streets, broken sewage pipes and without clean water for the seventh-consecutive week," said Grace Ommer of Oxfam.

The Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes Tuesday in at least five cities, including the capital, Sanaa, and Aden, a rebel stronghold.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Saudi interior ministry said fighting along the kingdom’s border with Yemen near Asir killed one Saudi soldier and wounded three late Monday.

As fighting continues, hopes are dwindling for a political resolution to end the war. Peace efforts also received a major blow this week after UN-sponsored negotiations due to take place in Geneva were indefinitely postponed.

And in a limited Cabinet reshuffle, Hadi appointed a former lawmaker, Brig. Gen. Abdu Al Houzifi, as a new interior minister to replace one who sided with the Houthis.

BAGHDAD — Iraq on Tuesday announced the launch of a major military operation to drive Daesh from the western Anbar province and retake the Sunni heartland where the extremist group captured the provincial capital, Ramadi, earlier this month.

The operation is backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, the Iraqi state TV reported, without providing further details. There was no indication of any immediate movements on the ground following the announcement.

Daesh seized large parts of Anbar in early 2014 and captured Ramadi earlier in May — a fall that marked a major defeat for Iraqi forces, which had been making steady progress against the extremists over the past months with the help of US-led air strikes.

The operation comes just days after US officials, including Defence Secretary Ash Carter, criticised the Iraqi forces, saying their men fled the Daesh advance on Ramadi without fighting back, leaving behind weapons and vehicles for the extremists.

But Baghdad defended its troops and quickly said military preparations were under way to launch a large-scale counter-offensive in Anbar, involving Iranian-backed Shiite militias. 

That possibility sparked fears of potential sectarian violence in the Sunni province, long the scene of protests and criticism against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

A spokesman for Iraq’s Shiite militias said Tuesday the operation would “not last for a long time” and that Iraqi forces have surrounded Ramadi from three sides.

New weapons are being used in the battle “that will surprise the enemy”, Ahmed Al Assadi, who is also a member of parliament, told reporters. He added there was also another operation underway, north of the nearby province of Salahuddin.

According to plans, forces fighting in Salahuddin would surround Ramadi from its northeastern side, he added.

The Anbar operation aims at cutting off supply routes and recapturing the outskirts of Ramadi first — not the city itself, according to provincial councilman Faleh Al Issawi and tribesman Rafie Al Fahdawi.

The two told The Associated Press that there was ongoing fighting and air strikes west and south of Ramadi on Tuesday, adding that more Sunni fighters will be armed starting from Wednesday to join the battle.

Security forces and Sunni militiamen who had been battling the extremists in Ramadi for months collapsed as Daesh fighters overran the city earlier this month.

The militants gained not only new territory 115 kilometres west of Baghdad, but also large stocks of weapons abandoned by government forces as they fled.

Carter said Sunday that Iraqi forces had “vastly outnumbered” the Daesh militants in Ramadi but “showed no will to fight”.

Saad Al Hadithi, a spokesman for Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, said the government was surprised by Carter’s remarks, and that the defense secretary “was likely given incorrect information”.

Al Abadi had called on Shiite militias to help Iraqi troops retake the Sunni province. The militiamen have played a key role in clawing back territory from the Daesh elsewhere in Iraq, but rights groups and Sunni residents have accused them of looting, destroying property and carrying out revenge attacks — especially after government forces recaptured the city of Tikrit early last month. Militia leaders deny the allegations.

The participation of the Shiite militias, known as Popular Mobilisation Unites, in the operation in the Sunni Anbar risks exacerbating sectarian tensions as some of the militias took part in retaliatory sectarian killings that roiled Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

Distrust of the Shiite-led government runs deep in the Sunni Anbar province, where US troops fought some of their bloodiest battles since Vietnam and only succeeded in rolling back militants when Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents rallied to their side as part of the Sahwa, or Awakening, movement beginning in 2006.

After the US troops’ withdrawal, the government has largely ignored the Sahwas and Sunni anger at Baghdad has steadily grown.