BAGHDAD -- Iraq on Monday rejected criticism by the U.S. defense secretary that Iraqi security forces lacked the will to fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group after the fall of Ramadi.
The Iraqi media highlighted the comments of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi who said in an interview with the BBC, that he was surprised by the comments of the U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and pledged to recapture Ramadi soon.
"I'm surprised why he said that. I mean, he was very supportive of Iraq. I am sure he was fed with the wrong information," Abadi told the BBC.
"It makes my heart bleed because we lost Ramadi but I can assure you we can bring it back soon," Abadi said.
He said that the Iraqi forces backed by Shiite and Sunni militias known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, have begun recapturing lands east of Ramadi, which located some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
"The major counter-offensive in Anbar would be launched soon," Abadi said.
Abadi's comments came in response to Carter who told the CNN news channel in an interview aired Sunday that Shiite-led Iraqi forces did not show a "will to fight" in the battle for the Sunni city of Ramadi, despite that the Iraqi soldiers "vastly outnumbered" the IS attackers.
"What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter said, adding that the Iraqi soldiers quickly withdrew and left behind large numbers of U.S. vehicles, including several tanks, now presumed to be in the IS hands.
For his part, the Iraqi lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili, head of the parliamentary defense and security committee, told reporters that he considers Carter's comments "unrealistic and baseless," because the Iraqi security forces did have the will to fight but they lack good equipment and aerial support.
"The Iraqi army, police did have the will to fight IS group in Ramadi, but they lack good equipment, weapons and aerial support," Zamili said.
On May 17, the IS militants took full control of Ramadi after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their positions in the headquarters of the army's 8th Brigade and the provincial operations command.
The rapid retreat of the security forces and the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province, was seen as a setback to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's efforts to defeat the IS group in Anbar province and then to free the IS-held city of Mosul in the north.
The IS group has seized most of Anbar province and tried to advance toward Baghdad during the past few months, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.
The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS militants.
