US did 'nothing' to save Ramadi

Iran accused United States of doing nothing to help Iraq's army battle jihadists in Ramadi, as Iraq yesterday rejected accusations by the US defence chief that its security forces dodged the battle and lack the will to fight the Islamic State group.

Qassem Suleimani, the Revolutionary Guards' commander of foreign operations, hit out at Washington after Pentagon chief Ashton Carter made the allegation against the Iraqi forces.

"Mr. (Barack) Obama, what is the distance between Ramadi and Al-Asad base where US planes are based?" Suleimani said in a speech late Sunday in the southern province of Kerman carried by state news agency IRNA.

"How can you be in that country under the pretext of protecting the Iraqis and do nothing? This is no more than being an accomplice in a plot," said Suleimani.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter argued that the May 17 fall of Ramadi, the worst defeat Baghdad has suffered in almost a year, could have been avoided.

"We have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves," he told CNN on Sunday, using one of the acronyms of the jihadist group.

Washington has been one of Baghdad's key partners in the war to reclaim the ground lost to ISIS last year and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi expressed disbelief at Carter's stinging comments.

"I'm surprised why he said that. I mean, he was very supportive of Iraq. I am sure he was fed with the wrong information," Abadi told the BBC.

The loss of Ramadi, capital of Iraq's largest province Anbar, raised questions over the strategy adopted not only by Baghdad but also by Washington to tackle ISIS.

Months of air strikes and the deployment of advisers to reform and train the security forces have failed to keep up with IS's aggressive tactics.

"Secretary Carter's remarks are surprising and likely to negatively affect the morale of the ISF," Iraq analyst Ahmed Ali said, referring to Iraqi security forces.

Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman of the Hashed al-Shaabi umbrella organisation for Shia militia and volunteers which Abadi reluctantly called in after Ramadi's fall, reacted angrily to Carter's comments.

"This lack of will the US defence secretary mentioned is how the enemies of Iraq have tried to depict the Iraqi security forces," he told AFP.

An Iraqi military commander in Anbar described Carter's comments as "a provocation to the Iraqi army and Iraqi people designed to make people lose their trust in the army."

The capture of Ramadi together with the ISIS takeover of Palmyra in eastern Syria last week has consolidated the jihadists' grip on the heart of their self-proclaimed caliphate.

In Syria, regime aircraft launched at least 15 strikes in and around Palymra on Monday, the Britain-based monitor reported. It said at least four civilians had been killed in the raids, which were the most intense since the jihadists overran the city on Thursday.