Iraqi forces abandon hundreds of military vehicles at Ramadi

Some of the U.S.-provided equipment that was left behind had not moved for months, indicating it may have had maintenance issues. Amid the train-and-equip programs the U.S. has continued to fund for Iraq, getting the Iraqis to develop expertise on long-term logistics support of major equipment has been a recurring challenge.

The cost for the equipment being left behind by Iraqi Security Forces is adding up quickly. M-1 Abrams tanks that have been captured or destroyed by the Islamic State cost roughly $4.3 million a piece. Wheeled vehicles, such as the 250 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles the U.S. gave to Iraq this year, cost at least $600,000 apiece, armored Humvees about $200,000 or more each and Stryker vehicles can range from $1 million to about $3 million, depending on the variant.

Keeping the Islamic State from acquiring the equipment is important, Warren said.

It is “certainly preferable if [the abandoned tanks and vehicles] had been destroyed, in this case they were not,” Warren said. If they are retaken by the Islamic State, “we will destroy enemy vehicles as we see them.”

The U.S. has also sent about 3,000 U.S. military trainers to Iraq to run training sites across the country and rebuild the army after it collapsed against the Islamic State last summer.

So far, about 7,000 Iraqis have graduated from the six-week training program, but the U.S. says it has not kept more detailed statistics on the training. Nor has the U.S. been able to identify how many participants from Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite populations have been recruited and trained, or how many, if any, of those fighters have participated in the major battles at Tikrit and now Ramadi since the program began.