Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Following comments made by US Defense Secretary Ash Carter about how the Iraqi army is incapable of fighting ISIS, Iraqi parties have responded with outrage.
Iraqi parties see Carter's comments as damaging to the morale of Iraqi forces in the fight against ISIS.
“Carter's words are far from the truth. There are defeats and victories in fighting. The USA should have the sense of responsibility, and they should be committed to the military agreements they have signed with Iraq,” Adnan Asadi, a member of the security and defense committee in the Iraqi Parliament, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“They signed a strategic agreement with Iraq in 2011 and the USA must be committed to supplying the Iraqi forces with weapons they need as well as training the Iraqi forces,” he continued.
ISIS has claimed it seized many American-supplied weapons from Iraqi forces as they retreated from Ramadi.
According to security sources, the political discourse between Iraqi parties is the leading factor behind the fall of Ramadi to ISIS, especially between forces loyal to disgraced former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his successor Haider al-Abadi.
“Discourse and disputes among political Shiite elites as well as the Sunni groups have left a political vacuum in Iraq,” Abdul Aziz Hassan, a member of the security and defense committee in the Iraqi Parliament, told Rudaw on Tuesday. “We need to have an organized and disciplined force.”
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