Iraqi forces lack will to fight: US defense secretary

Mr Carter told CNN's State of the Union the Iraqis "vastly outnumbered" the IS forces but chose to withdraw.

The head of Iraq's defence and security committee said the comments were "unrealistic and baseless".

The Iraqi government has now deployed Shia militias to the area to try to halt the advance of IS.

On Saturday, the militiamen retook Husayba, east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, with heavy fighting continuing in the area on Sunday.

'Very concerning'

The US has invested in a policy of training and arming the Iraqi forces since it withdrew its combat troops at the end of 2011.

But Iraqi forces have suffered a number of defeats at the hands of IS over the past year, leaving behind US-supplied materiel.

Mr Carter said of Ramadi: "What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force."

Describing the situation as "very concerning", he added: "We can give them training, we can give them equipment - we obviously can't give them the will to fight."

Mr Carter said the supply of training and equipment would continue, in the hope it would develop such a will.

The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in Washington says the comments are a stinging assessment of the army the US has been training and will embolden critics who say the only way to defeat IS is to put American boots on the ground - something Washington has so far ruled out.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the BBC's John Simpson he was "surprised" at the comments.

"[Mr Carter] was very supportive of Iraq and I am sure he was fed with the wrong information," he said.

Mr Abadi also insisted Ramadi could be taken back "in days".

Hakim al-Zamili, the head of Iraq's parliamentary defence and security committee, was more critical of Mr Carter.

 

(BBC)