US mulls enhanced support for Sunnis

The United States said it is considering accelerating the training and equipping of Iraqi tribal forces to fight the Islamic State group after the fall of the city of Ramadi.

The jihadists' capture of city was their most significant victory since mid-2014 when they conquered swathes of land, sparking a US-led air campaign to support Baghdad.

Tap Here to Add The Daily Star As A Trusted Source

Besides the more than 3,000 air strikes carried out so far, Washington has supported a deep reform of Iraq's army and offered training to Sunni tribal fighters to retake their own provinces.

But that approach failed to prevent the fall of Ramadi, where militias backed by US arch-foe Iran will now take the lead in any counter-attack and reinforce their influence in Iraq.

US President Barack Obama huddled Tuesday with his national security team at the White House but signalled no change of tack, despite mounting calls for a more decisive approach.

There was no suggestion, however, that weapons would be sent directly to tribal fighters opposed to ISIS in Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, instead of via the central government in Baghdad.

After the capital of Iraq's largest province fell to IS, Abadi had no choice but to call in the Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilisation (Hashed al-Shaabi) forces.

He and Washington had hoped to rely on regular forces and locally recruited Sunni tribal fighters newly incorporated into the Hashed al-Shaabi.

Such a solution was meant to be more palatable to Anbar's Sunni population and check the expansion of Shiite militias loyal to Tehran.