国际英语新闻:US Supports Offensive to Retake Anbar

PENTAGON—Iraqi government-allied forces clashed with Islamic State militants on the edges of Ramadi after Baghdad launched an offensive Tuesday to retake Anbar province and its capital.

The U.S. military endorsed Iraq’s decision, announced earlier Tuesday. Ramadi, a predominantly Sunni city, fell to the Islamic extremist group May 17 after Iraq’s military fled.

Iraqi sources say the offensive is backed by Shi'ite militias as well as Sunni pro-government fighters.

The U.S. military welcomed the Sunnis’ inclusion, said Colonel Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman.

"We've long said that the key to victory, the key to expelling ISIL from Iraq, is a unified Iraq … that separates itself from sectarian divides, coalesces around this common threat," Warren said at a briefing Tuesday.

The regular Iraqi military's failure to hold Ramadi has forced the government to send Iran-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries to help retake the city. Washington has worried this could enrage residents in the overwhelmingly Sunni province and push them into the arms of the Islamic State group.

But on Tuesday, Shi’ite militiamen, supported by a smaller cadre of government troops, had advanced to within a few kilometers of a university of Ramadi’s southwestern edge – part of the "shaping operations" of a proper offensive, Warren said.

"Shaping operations in this case are operations in order to secure lines of communication, secure key road junctures and intersections, secure certain terrain ... prior to a full-on offensive," the Pentagon spokesman said.

Later Tuesday, Anbar province officials reported fighting and airstrikes west and south of Ramadi, according to the Associated Press. Iraqi media reported shelling and minor clashes between government-allied forces and Islamic State militants.

The fight against the Islamic State continued on multiple fronts. The Pentagon reported that, over a 24-hour period ending Tuesday, a U.S.-led coalition had coordinated 19 airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq and Syria. Twelve were near the Iraqi cities of Beiji, Fallujah, Hit, Mosul, Sinjar and Tal Afar, while seven were focused near Al Hasakah, Syria.

Hours after Baghdad announced its campaign, President Barack Obama said the United States and its NATO allies need to consider how they are deploying military assets against Islamist extremists in Iraq.

Obama, speaking at the end of a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said the challenge posed by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and the conflict in Libya, has forced the alliance to look south as well as east in its mission.

"NATO is necessarily recognizing a whole range of global challenges, particularly on  what we call the Southern Front ... making sure that we continue to coordinate effectively in the fight against ISIL," Obama said, using an acronym for the Islamist group. "It also means we have to think about whether we are deploying and arranging our assets effectively to meet that challenge."

On Sunday, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter had criticized Iraqi forces for pulling out of Ramadi without much fight.

Warren elaborated on those remarks Tuesday, noting that the Iraqi forces "vastly outnumbered their enemy yet they chose to withdraw."