Iraq’s PM denies his forces lack ‘will to fight’

Mr al-Abadi said Iraqi forces would take back Ramadi from Islamic State (IS) forces “within days” after troops retreated from the scene after a series of defeats at the hands of IS militants.

He rejected comments from US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who said on Sunday that Iraqi forces seemed to show “no will to fight” when pulling back from the city.

“What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered,” Mr Carter said.

“In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force.

‘Wrong information’

“That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight [IS] and defend themselves.”

Mr Abadi expressed surprised at the Mr Carter’s comments, saying he was “very supportive of Iraq and I am sure he was fed with the wrong information”.

He said his forces were affected by the prospect of “an onslaught” from IS, and called for more international help with the campaign.

“With armoured trucks packed with explosives, the effect of them is like a small nuclear bomb – it gives a very very bad effect on our forces,” he told the BBC.

The head of Iraq’s parliamentary defence and security committee, Hakim al-Zamili, has dismissed Mr Carter’s comments as “unrealistic and baseless”.

He said the US was trying to “throw the blame on somebody else” after failing to provide “good equipment, weapons and aerial support” to Iraqi troops.

The Pentagon said that in their abandonment of Ramadi, Iraqi troops left behind six tanks, as many artillery pieces and even more armoured personnel carriers, as well as about 100 wheeled vehicles such as Humvees.

Iraqi security forces have repeatedly left US-supplied military equipment at the sites of their retreats over the last year, forcing US forces to target them in following strikes against IS.