Thousands of Iraqis flee as Islamic State

makes gains in Sunni heartland

Displaced families from Ramadi wait in miles of traffic while fleeing an offensive by
Islamic State militants in the Iraqi province of Anbar. (Ayman Oghanna/For The
Washington Post)

By Loveday Morris April 17 at 7:44 PM

SADR AL-YUSUFIYAH Thousands of families fleeing Iraqs western city of Ramadi

choked checkpoints leading to Baghdad on Friday, after anIslamic State
advance spread panic and left security forces clinging to control.
A column of traffic several vehicles wide snaked for miles at a checkpoint in Sadr alYusufiyah, on the edge of Baghdad province, as minibuses, cars and trucks picked up

families who crossed by foot carrying their possessions in bags and wheelbarrows.
Suhaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital,
described it as a human disaster on a scale the city has never witnessed.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that the city is at risk of falling to the Islamic State
despite seven months of airstrikes by U.S. planes in Anbar. Such a loss would be a
serious blow to Iraqs government, which recently announced a military campaign for
the province after retaking the militant stronghold of Tikrit, and to the international
effort to push back the militant group, whose gains in Ramadi have demonstrated an
ability to create chaos even while under pressure.
[ The Islamic States atrocities ]
That resilience was further underscored in the Kurdish city of Irbil on Friday, where
the Islamic State was suspected of carrying out a car bombing near the U.S. Consulate.
Faced with the expanding crisis on his return Friday from Washington, Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi ordered immediate reinforcements to Ramadi amid claims that some
Iraqi security forces had withdrawn.

Displaced families from Ramadi wait in miles of traffic whilst fleeing an offensive by
Islamic State militants in the Iraqi province of Anbar. (Ayman Oghanna/For The
Washington Post)

The situation is critical right now, Rawi said of the teetering security in Ramadi.
Such a large wave of displacement has never happened in the history of the city.
Raad al-Dahlaki, head of the Iraqi parliaments committee for the internally displaced,
said that 10,000 people had crossed into Baghdad province but that about 20,000
more remained stranded at the checkpoint because of a guarantor system, which
requires fleeing families to have someone vouch for them.
Many arriving Friday in Sadr al-Yusufiyah had spent days traveling and said that few
civilians had remained behind. Some were police officers who said they had left their
positions after other security forces retreated and their ammunition had run low.
How can you fight with only 20 bullets? said a 47-year-old police officer, who added
that he had left the Malab neighborhood of Ramadi three days earlier with 18 members
of his extended family. Like others interviewed, he spoke on the condition of
anonymity because he had abandoned his post. He said the army had also withdrawn,
a claim that could not be immediately verified.
[ The Islamic State was dumped by al-Qaeda last year. Now look at it. ]
Daesh has M16s and M4s, and we only have Kalashnikovs, said another police
officer, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. He said he had fled his home in
Ramadis Soufiyah neighborhood with his wife and 1-year-old child. I dont think I
will ever see my house again.
Rawi said that there had been realignments of forces but not retreats and that there
were assurances from the U.S.-led coalition that airstrikes would increase. Still, he
said, support has been sorely lacking.

More than 4000 families have fled Anbar in recent days as Islamic State militants
threaten to overrun the city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq's Western Anbar
province. (Ayman Oghanna/For The Washington Post)

We dont know if its neglect or just a lack of capacity, he said.

Brig. Gen. Tahseen Ibrahim, a spokesman for Iraqs Ministry of Defense, said
reinforcements from counterterrorism units had been deployed.
Our troops are preparing themselves to attack, he said. Discussions were underway
as to whether to also send what are known as popular mobilization forces, which
include Shiite militias, but there was not yet an agreement, he said.
The question of sending the largely Shiite paramilitary forces has been contentious in
Anbar, a predominantly Sunni province. But as the security situation has deteriorated,
a growing number of local tribal leaders and officials have said they need all the help
they can get. In his sermon Friday, Iraqs top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani,

said all sons of Iraq should help the fight, a comment viewed as an endorsement of
the militias playing a role.
At a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, played down the importance of Ramadi, saying that it is not symbolic in any
way and that Baiji, a key location for Iraqs oil infrastructure, is a more strategic
target.
But Iraqi military officials have said that securing Anbar province, much of which is
controlled by the Islamic State, is an essential step before any advance on Mosul, the
groups base of power in Iraq.
That view was echoed Friday by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, who called Dempseys remarks a gross
mischaracterization.
The fall of Ramadi would be seen by Iraqi Sunnis as a failure of the Baghdad
government to protect them, and could deal a major blow to political reconciliation
efforts that are essential to defeating ISIL, McCain, using another acronym for the
Islamic State, said in a statement Friday that was released jointly by Sen. Lindsey O.
Graham (R-S.C.). Yet apparently, the current U.S. strategy is to defend an oil refinery
in Beiji, but abandon the capital of pivotal Anbar province to ISIL.
[ Petraeus: The Islamic State isnt our biggest problem in Iraq ]
Even if Iraqi security forces can shift the momentum in their favor, the setbacks in
Ramadi have compounded Iraqs humanitarian misery, with the United Nations
reporting that at least 4,250 families have fled the city in recent days.
Saad Hamid, 40, said he left as Islamic State militants began to enter his neighborhood
this week.

We left on foot through the farms, he said. They were terrified, he added, gesturing
to his three young nieces and nephews.
Before reaching Sadr al-Yusufiyah, fleeing families were forced to leave their cars in
Anbar province before crossing a bridge into Baghdad province on foot a security
measure that authorities said was intended to prevent car bomb attacks.
Dahlaki said that the security measures were necessary but that his committee has
requested the guarantor system be dropped to ease the movement of families seeking
to leave.
Sunni tribal sheiks who remain in Ramadi say they have received little support for
their fighters, despite promises of arms from the central government.
The city has been fending off Islamic State attacks for more than a year, after being
overrun for the first time in January 2014. At that time, before the Islamic State had
built its brutal reputation, fewer people fled. Now, things are different.
People are practically dying of fear, said Omar al-Alwani, a tribal sheik who says he
has about 500 fighters in Ramadi. Half the army has retreated. Its only really the
counterterrorism units now.
He said he was considering retreating with his men on the one remaining open road
out of the city.
Tahseen, the Defense Ministry spokesman, disputed the sheiks accounts.
Some sheiks say the government is still weak about help, but it isnt true, he said.
Other fleeing Anbar residents said their local leaders were as much to blame as the
central government for their plight, with many fleeing the province themselves.

We were sold out by our sheiks, Hamid said. They never found a solution for us,
they just left. No one thought about the families.
Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.
Related
Islamic State strikes back in Anbar province
The Islamic State appears to be fraying from within
Shiite militias backed by Iran could undermine U.S., Iraqi strategy

Loveday Morris is a Beirut-based correspondent for The

Post. She has previously covered the Middle East for The National, based in
Abu Dhabi, and for the Independent, based in London and Beirut.
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