The White House acknowledged the Islamic State’s takeover of Ramadi as a “setback” but pledged to help the Iraqis regain control of central Iraq city.
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“Ramadi has been contested over the last 18 months,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling on Air Force One with President Obama Monday. “There’s no denying that this is indeed a setback, but there’s also no denying that we will help the Iraqis take back Ramadi.”
Shultz also said there was no new military strategy in Iraq to preview other than the ongoing U.S.-led airstrikes and support for the Iraqi forces, which have been concentrating their fire on Islamic State forces in the Ramadi area.
“Our aircraft are in the air right now and searching for ISIL targets. They will continue to do so until Ramadi is retaken,” Schultz said, noting that the U.S.-led coalition has conducted 32 airstrikes in Ramadi in the past three weeks, including eight over the past 24 hours.
“These strikes will be continuing,” he said. “ISIL will ultimately be defeated in Ramadi and elsewhere in Iraq because we believe the Iraqi forces have the capacity to ultimately take Ramadi with coalition support.”
Islamic State fighters seized Ramadi, a central Iraqi city just 80 miles from Baghdad, over the weekend and killed some 500 people in the process.
Iraqi security forces abandoned their Anbar Operations Center in Ramadi overnight, and as many as 8,000 people have fled the streets, leaving the city in complete Islamic State control, according to U.S. officials.
