WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremists took control of the Iraqi city of Ramadi last week when Iraqi forces failed to fight for the city and instead withdrew, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in an interview broadcast on CNN's 'State of the Union' program.
'What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight,' Carter told CNN. Iraqi security forces must have the will to fight and defend themselves against ISIL extremists, he added.
Iraq's forces were not outnumbered in the fight for Ramadi when ISIL gained control of the city, the secretary said. '[They] vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight,' the secretary said. 'They withdrew from the site, and that says to me -- and I think most of us -- that we have an issue with the will of Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves.'
U.S. military forces can provide the Iraqis with equipment and training, but 'we obviously can't give them the will to fight,' Carter said. With equipment, training, coalition support and some time, the secretary added, he hopes the Iraqis will develop that will.
Only Iraqis can defeat ISIL in their own country, the secretary told CNN. 'If there comes a time where we need to change the kind of support we're giving to the Iraqi forces, we'll make that recommendation,' he said.
U.S. military and coalition forces have made regular airstrikes against ISIL and its facilities in Iraq since August, but those airstrikes have limitations, the secretary noted. 'Airstrikes are effective, but neither they nor anything we do can substitute for the Iraqi forces' will to fight,' Carter said.
U.S. forces can participate in ISIL's defeat, but we can't make Iraq run as a decent place where people live,' the secretary said. 'We can't sustain the victory,' he added.
Carter denied that the Defense Department has recommended putting U.S. forward air controllers - military personnel who direct fighter pilots to targets -- on the ground in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told BBC that the Iraqi forces will taken back Ramadi from Islamic State militants 'in days'.
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