Washington on Monday accused Iraqi forces of lacking the will to fight the Islamic State group, which scored a resounding victory a week earlier with the capture of Ramadi.
The jehadis had appeared on the back foot in Iraq in recent months but twin offensives on Ramadi and on the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra have swung the momentum.
The loss of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s largest province of Anbar, raised questions over the strategy adopted not only by Baghdad but also by Washington to tackle ISIS.
Pentagon chief Ashton Carter told CNN the fall of Ramadi, Baghdad’s worst military defeat in almost a year, could have been avoided.
“What apparently happened was the Iraqi forces showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered, and they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and they failed to fight and withdrew from the site,” he said.
“That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIl and defend themselves,” he said, using an alternative name for the group.
The US-led coalition air war that began two months after ISIS seized swathes of Iraq in June 2014 has led to more than 3,000 strikes.