The U.S. is prepared to let the Iraqi city of Ramadi fall to ensure the more strategic oil refinery in Beiji is defended from the Islamic State.
In a joint press conference at the Pentagon Thursday afternoon, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said that protecting Iraq’s oil in the northern city of Beiji, which the U.S. has done over the last several days through intensified airstrikes, is critical to cutting off the Islamic State’s access to the revenue that oil would produce for the terrorist group.
Ramadi, to the west of Baghdad, has not had the attention of the Iraqi government that its northern cities have. On Thursday, Dempsey said cities and towns to the west in the Anbar province have had only “pockets” of Iraqi security forces protection.
Dempsey said the need to further protect Ramadi and the surrounding area “was the topic of our conversation with Prime Minister [Haider al-Abadi] yesterday,” and was part of the reason Abadi was seeking additional military support, including increased airstrikes from the U.S.
Dempsey said Ramadi would likely fall but would be recovered.
“The city itself is not symbolic in any way — it’s not been declared part of the caliphate on one hand or central to the future of Iraq — but we want to get it back,” Dempsey said. “I would much rather that Ramadi not fall, but it won’t be the end of a campaign should it fall,” Dempsey said, noting a growing humanitarian crisis that had led to thousands of Ramadi citizens seeking refuge in Baghdad.
Beiji, on the other hand, “is different.”
“Beiji is part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure,” and by securing the city, Iraq “will control all of their oil infrastructure both North and South and deny [the Islamic State] the ability to generate revenue through oil. So Beiji is a more strategic target.”
