Official says troops not enough to fight Islamic State in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An official at Anbar province council said Sunday that the reason security operations against

Islamic State in the city had halted is the insufficiency of troops needed for the campaign.

Eid al-Karbouli, a spokesperson of the Anbar province council, was quoted by Alsumaria News as saying that there are not enough troops to take over of the targeted Islamic State-held towns, adding that the forces available are not “well-prepared” to assume security at the province’s borders with Syria.

“Border forces in Anbar are in need for logistic reinforcements- caravans, tents and monitoring cameras to watch over the Iraqi borders with Syria after liberation,” Karbouli said, adding that the local government in Anbar had allocated 300 million dinars to install monitoring cameras at the borders.

“What benefit will we get if we recapture Annah, Rawa and Qaem as long as Iraqi-Syrian borders are open?” Karbouli wondered, referring to the western Anbar towns held by IS since 2014. “If we kill 100 terrorists, the group will bring 1000 from Syria. It would be futile.”

Anbar’s security command, backed by tribal troops, launched early January a brief onslaught against the Islamic State in western Anbar. The campaign, which, unlike that in Mosul, was not officially declared by the cabinet, managed to retake a few villages before halting again.