An Iraqi tribal leader said Saturday that ISIS militants are gaining ground in Anbar province, and he predicted a “collapse within hours” of that province’s cities and towns if Iraqi forces withdraw.
Sheikh Naim al-Gaoud, the Sunni leader of the Albu Mimr tribe, which was a U.S. ally in the mid-2000s, called for more U.S. intervention — including ground troops, arming tribes directly and pressuring the Iraqi government to give the tribes more firepower.
While U.S. officials have said that ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, is on the defensive in Iraq and Syria, al-Gaoud says that’s definitely not the case where he is.
“In Anbar, we are losing ground, not gaining,” he said.
Thousands of families had been under siege in the Anbar town of Jubbat al-Shamiya until getting help Friday from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and Iraqi forces, according to al-Gaoud.
But he said that Iraqi troops had pulled out of the Jubbat al-Shamiya on Saturday, at which time ISIS was shelling the town.
If the Islamist extremist group’s fighters go in, al-Gaoud predicted a massacre.
Key base attacked
Anbar province is just west of Baghdad, meaning a decisive ISIS victory would put ISIS on the footsteps of the Iraqi capital. It’s also home to the strategic Ayn al-Assad Air Base, which came under attack Friday.
Talking about that battle, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said 20 to 25 people — most, if not all, of whom were wearing Iraqi military uniforms and were led by suicide bombers — attacked the huge, nearly 25-square-mile base.
“It looks like (ISIS militants) at least got to the outer base limits,” Kirby said.
At least 13 Iraqi soldiers died in the assault, according to al-Gaoud, which ended with Iraqi ground forces killing all the attackers.
U.S. troops were on the base at the time, but “several kilometers” from where the fighting happened, Kirby said. The U.S. military did deploy Apache attack helicopters in that ISIS assault, but the Apaches returning safely without firing a shot, military sources said.
American helicopter gunships were also involved in a fight supporting Iraqi ground forces about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north in the Anbar town of al-Baghdadi, according to sources.
Al-Gaoud, the Albu Mimr tribal leader, said militants killed at least 25 Iraqi police officers during their assault on that town Thursday and Friday.
ISIS took over al-Baghdadi on Friday.