If Daesh (self-proclaimed IS) militants have seized the main government building in Ramadi which houses its police headquarters, and which is the capital of the Al-Anbar Governorate, Iraq's largest province, it would be a blow for the Iraqi government which has been trying for more than a year to prevent Al-Anbar and its key towns and cities from falling into the hands of Daesh. Ramadi is not only the largest city in Al-Anbar but it's only about 110 kilometers west of Baghdad. Thus the assault has a message: having seized Ramadi, Daesh is now in control of Al-Anbar province, and is just a few leaps away from the capital The latest attack also comes a day after Daesh put out an audio message which it claimed was from its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi who Iraq had said was seriously wounded in a coalition air strike in March. Apparently, though, the recording seems to prove Al-Baghdadi not only survived, but is calling for recruits from around the world. The fierceness by which Daesh fighters managed to get into the Ramadi compound attests to their ferociousness. They used as many as six suicide car bombs, killing at least 10 police officers while taking at least 50 police officers prisoner. Mass executions have been reported. Though not verified, the Daesh savagery of the past makes it very likely. Daesh and Iraqi troops have been battling for months to take control of Al-Anbar with the help of anti-government tribes and members of former president Saddam Hussein's army. The coalition fighting Daesh also comprises Iraqi counterterrorism units, federal police, all backed by strikes by the US-led coalition that has been targeting the militants by air since September. But the Ramadi battles and the city's eventual capture also suggest that all these forces were not enough, that pro-government forces, including the military and Shiite militias, remain bogged down by poor coordination, corruption and sectarian squabbles. There has also been vagueness on the composition of the pro-government forces that are fighting for the province. The very Shiite militias, along with American air power, who recaptured Tikrit, are on the sidelines in Al-Anbar partly because of fears that their involvement would inflame sectarian tensions and make matters worse. Instead, the Americans have pushed the Iraqi government to arm and train local Sunni tribesmen to do the fighting themselves. But very few have actually been trained or armed, partly because of resistance from influential Shiite leaders who fear that doing so would, in effect, build a Sunni militia that would either sell its weapons to Daesh or end up fighting against the government. Ramadi is one of the few towns and cities to have remained under government control, so the attack now threatens one of the last government pockets in Al-Anbar. And Daesh has taken control of the only major supply route into the city, making it difficult to send reinforcements. Only last month, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi pledged that his forces would "liberate" Anbar from Daesh after the success of re-taking Tikrit. The exact opposite has happened and it will give Daesh the momentum to control the whole of Al-Anbar which has key highways that link Iraq to both Syria and Jordan. The fight in Al-Anbar is part of a broader, longer war which erupted when Daesh swept across large swathes of northern Iraq in its shock summer offensive last year, before declaring a caliphate in the area under its control. The Daesh march is far from over as Al-Baghdadi warned in the recording that the group's de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria could be the next stop.
