Leaders in Iraq’s besieged Anbar province are pleading for U.S. ground troops to help repel encroaching Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters.
Sabar Al-Karhout, the president of Anbar Provincial Council, told CNN Saturday the situation in Anbar, just to the west of Baghdad, is “very bad.”
Al-Karhout said the council has intelligence the Islamic State has dispatched as many as 10,000 fighters to Anbar from Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq.
Iraq government forces still control most of Anbar’s capital, Ramadi, but the city is vulnerable.
The council’s deputy head, Falleh al-Issawi, told CNN it had asked Iraq’s central government to request the deployment of U.S. ground forces to Anbar to help save the province from imminent collapse.
The Iraqi central government said it hasn’t received an official request from Anbar leaders for U.S. ground troops. But it said it would consider such a request if it receives one.
The U.S. has attacked the Islamic State fighters with airstrikes but the Obama administration hasn’t committed ground troops to fight in the region.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admitted on Friday the situation in Anbar is dire.
“Anbar province is in trouble. We know that,” Hagel said Friday during a visit to Colombia. “The United States and coalition partners are helping and assisting the Iraqi security forces, Peshmerga, the Kurds.”
“The president has said, all of our senior officials have said, this is a difficult effort. It is going to take time. It won’t be easy. So, yes, there is a lot of uncertainty in Anbar right now,” Hagel added.
Hagel was in Colombia in part to discuss cooperative efforts with Bogota to fight the Islamic State.
There is significant fear that if Anbar falls to the Islamic State, Baghdad could be next.
Islamic State group fighters have battled Iraqi forces in Abu Ghraib, the Anbar town home to the infamous prison of the same name that’s only 18 miles from the Green Zone, the fortified international zone protecting Baghdad-based embassies and government office.
A senior military official in Anbar told the Associated Press Saturday that government helicopters fired on targets daily in Abu Ghraib, though the town remains in the hands of security forces.
