The Islamic State group's capture of Ramadi is a serious setback to the US strategy to defeat the jihadists and raises fresh doubts about the competence of its Iraqi partners.
The Iraqi security forces' defeat in the capital of Anbar province came despite US and coalition warplanes carrying out more than 160 air strikes over the past month, and after an elaborate effort starting last year to arm and train government troops and Sunni tribesmen.
And the fall of the western city undercut the upbeat portrayal of the war effort promoted by President Barack Obama's administration. Commanders had insisted the IS group was losing ground and momentum on the battlefield.
Also Read
As recently as Friday, a senior US officer told reporters the IS group was "on the defensive," even as Iraqi forces struggled to hang on in Ramadi and battled an assault on the Baiji oil refinery north of Baghdad.
Two outspoken critics of Obama's approach to the war, senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, said Ramadi has once been "a symbol of Iraqis working together with brave young Americans in uniform to defeat Al-Qaeda.
"Today it appears to be a sad reminder of this administration's indecisive air campaign in Iraq and Syria and a broader lack of strategy to achieve its stated objective of degrading and destroying ISIL," the senators said, using an alternative acronym for the IS.
With Iraqi leaders now turning to Shiite militias to recapture the area, Washington is again concerned about the Sunni community's trust in Baghdad and the influence of arch-foe Iran in the conflict.
"The fact that the Baghdad government now is considering moving Shiite militias to Ramadi suggests that Iraq's central government still lacks adequate support from Sunni Arabs to defeat the Islamic State," said Jim Phillips of the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Ramadi is the first major city to fall into IS hands since the United States and its allies launched air strikes in Iraq last August.
US officials have described the raids as a way to stem the advance of the IS and to buy time for the training of the Iraqi army.
But American officers had hoped that the Iraqi forces, along with Sunni paramilitary units, could push back the extremists without having to rely on a large number of Shiite militia fighters -- some of whom have close ties to neighboring Iran.
