Anti-ISIL coalition ‘must learn lessons’ from Ramadi

Gen John Allen also said that the campaign against ISIL must be viewed in the long term, not just 'last month or next month'.

An screen grab taken from a video uploaded on May 18, 2015 by Aamaq News Agency, a Youtube channel which posts videos from areas under ISIL control, allegedly shows the militants in a street of Ramadi, the Iraqi capital of Anbar province, a day after it was captured by ISIL. Aamaq News Agency/AFP PhotoShow less

DOHA // The anti-ISIL coalition must learn “the right lessons” from the militant group’s capture of Ramadi, a key Sunni city in Western Iraq, the US general leading the global fight against the extremists said on Wednesday.

Speaking in Doha at the US-Islamic World Forum, Gen John Allen also said the campaign against ISIL must be viewed in the long term, not just “last month or next month”.

Gen Allen, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, admitted that the loss of Ramadi to the militant group on May 17 had been a setback. However, he sought to cast the defeat as one challenge in the longer term fight.

Nearly a year after ISIL’s capture of Mosul, the coalition fighting the militants faces strong criticism. The loss of Ramadi further bolstered critics who say that the coalition’s tactics to counter the group are ineffective.

Countering such critics, Gen Allen said that based on his experience in previous international coalitions – such as in Afghanistan and Nato’s International Security Assistance Force – he has learned that it is important to understand that there will be ups and downs in a campaign.

“From the outset of this campaign we’ve understood that countering Daesh would require an enduring effort,” he said referring to ISIL by its Arabic acronym.

He highlighted the “unprecedented” international nature of the nine-month old coalition against ISIL, now 60 states and entities, which came together in a short period of time.

The coalition is focused on five lines of activity to counter the militant group in Iraq: coordinating military support, countering propaganda, cracking down on funding, stemming the flow of foreign fighters and stabilising recaptured areas.

Each is directed by working groups led by two to three members of the coalition, he said.

The US and Iraq, for example, are leading the group coordinating military support.

The UAE, US and Britain are in charge of coordinating efforts to counter ISIL propaganda. With Germany, the UAE is also focused on efforts to ensure that territory that has been recaptured are stabilised.

While the reasons for Ramadi’s capture must be understood, Gen Allen said the ISIL group has also been defeated by the coalition in other areas of Iraq. “Today Daesh has lost over 25 per cent of the populated territory it once held in Iraq,” he said.

He listed a number of locations and battles including Mosul Dam, Mount Sinjar, Tikrit and Kobani in Syria as examples of ISIL defeats.

Gen Allen was confident that ISIL would eventually be defeated because Iraq’s current prime minister Haider Al Abadi believes in federalism and the decentralisation of power, something his predecessor, Nouri Al Maliki, opposed.

Mr Al Maliki is widely blamed for marginalising Iraqi Sunnis, one reason that ISIL was able to capture so much territory so quickly.

Gen Allen is not the only US official seeking to highlight coalition successes. Speaking in Paris on Wednesday, US deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken said more than 10,000 ISIL militants have been killed since the coalition began its campaign.

“We have seen a lot of losses within Daesh since the start of this campaign, more than 10,000,” he told French radio.

Despite the victories, deep scepticism remains about the coalition’s approach to ISIL in both Iraq and Syria.

Moderate Sunnis are not being supported fast enough for them to stand up to ISIL and often when the group is defeated in one place it expands in another, according to regional analysts.