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Fighting in Iraqi City of Ramadi Very Difficult, U.S. General Says

23 May 2006

Insurgents "wrestling for control" inside city with Iraqi, coalition forces

Washington -- Ramadi is the most fought-over city in Iraq today, according to a U.S. military spokesman.

Brigadier General Carter Ham, deputy director for regional operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a Pentagon briefing May 23 called Ramadi "a tough area … probably the most contentious city right now inside Iraq." 

U.S. Army and Marine forces are in frequent contact with enemy fighters in Ramadi, a city of 450,000 a few miles from the Euphrates River in al-Anbar province.  It is a long-time Sunni stronghold, Ham said.

The general said the fighting in Ramadi is not a large-scale offensive, either by Iraqi and coalition forces or by the insurgents.  Rather, it is a "wrestling for control of space inside the city, as well as protection for the people who live there," he said.

Since Sunnis were favored and Shiites persecuted during Saddam Hussein's regime, Ham said it is likely that former Saddam sympathizers have a strong presence in Ramadi.  But it also is likely that elements of al-Qaida in Iraq are present too, seeking to establish a safe haven or base of operation, he said.  Ramadi's location affords access to Baghdad and to border areas through the Euphrates River valley, he said.

"I don't think we can clearly say it's one group or another, but rather the combination of those," Ham said.

The general said the key would be "how can we best help the Iraqis to establish control in their city."  The situation is not one U.S. forces can resolve, Ham said.  U.S. commanders in Ramadi are working with Iraq's defense and interior ministries "to get the right Iraqi forces on the ground in Ramadi to help a very, very difficult situation."

Iraq has sovereignty, Ham said, so the primary responsibility for establishing security clearly belongs to Iraqi officials.

"Our role is to help them," he said.

Because Ramadi is a Sunni stronghold, while most members of the Iraq army are Shia, "there are certainly some ethnic considerations which have to occur," Ham said.  All members of the coalition, as well as the senior leadership of Iraq's army and police, are focused on getting Iraqi security forces to be loyal to Iraq, as opposed to a Shiite Iraq or a Sunni Iraq.

"That's culture change," Ham said.  "That's trying to overcome a generation of feeling that was just the opposite."

Ramadi will need to be stabilized by capable, dedicated and loyal Iraqi security forces, he said.

For more information, see Iraq Update.

A transcript of Gen. Ham’s remarks is available on the Defense Department Web site.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)