MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) – Iraq’s fractured army has begun to regroup and stage modest, localized attacks on the Islamic State militants who routed them last spring and summer, but they are unlikely to be ready to launch a major counteroffensive for many months, senior U.S. military officials say.
“We’ve seen them start to act like an army,” one official said Thursday in a lengthy exchange with a group of Washington reporters who were invited to U.S. Central Command headquarters for the command’s most extensive briefings on operations in Iraq and Syria.
The Iraqi security forces, trained for years by the U.S. prior to its departure from Iraq in 2011, have suffered sectarian divisions, a breakdown in leadership and a loss of confidence. To compound the problem, they surrendered tanks, armored personnel carriers and other U.S.-supplied equipment several months ago when IS fighters overtook Mosul.
The officials, who were not authorized to be quoted by name in discussing details of the U.S. military strategy in Iraq and Syria, made it clear that no large Iraqi counteroffensive was imminent or even feasible for the time being. Their remarks coincided with a Pentagon statement that said Iraq’s new defense chief, Khaled al-Obeidi, told Defense Minister Chuck Hagel in a telephone call that Baghdad was committed to regaining the initiative.
“The minister was quite clear on more than one occasion … that he has every intention of going on the offensive,” the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in Washington. He said Hagel encouraged al-Obeidi to rebuild the army in a manner that “engenders trust and confidence” not only among soldiers but also among the Iraqi people.