Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi criticized on Sunday the “slowness” of the US-led international coalition against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group in providing military support to his army.
“The international coalition is very slow in its support and training of the army” in Iraq, Abadi said at a meeting with a group of journalists during an official visit to Cairo.
Abadi acknowledged that “in the last two weeks there has been an acceleration,” urging, however, a “further acceleration” in the assistance provided to the Iraqi army.
Moreover, Abadi said he discussed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi Iraqi “proposals” for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria.
According to the PM, the proposals would “fill the void” in areas taken back from the ISIS, ensuing “a joint administration between the government and the opposition during a period of transition.”
The objective is to prevent the emergence of “new terrorist groups” in areas freed from the ISIS yoke, he added.
Large swathes of land in Iraq have become ISIS strongholds as the extremist group, which declared a “caliphate” in the territory it seized in Iraq and Syria, drove Iraq’s army – the recipient of $25 billion in US training and funding since the 2003 invasion – to collapse.
Since then, Iraqi forces have been trying to halt the advance of the militants and taking back territories captured.
The US-led anti-ISIS coalition has been bombing Iraq since August and has so far billed Iraq more than $260 million, despite failure to stop the advance of militants.
However, Iraqi soldiers and police, Kurdish forces, and Shia resistance groups have succeeded in regaining some ground from ISIS.
But large parts of the country, including three major cities, remain outside Baghdad’s control.
US officials claim the Iraqi army is being trained and armed to stage a major counter-offensive later in 2015, but in the meantime the international coalition is using air raids to pile pressure on ISIS supply lines.
The anti-ISIS campaign came almost three years after US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq after a nine-year occupation that left the country in turmoil.
According to the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) report in November last year, Iraq ranked first out of 162 countries on the Global Terrorism Index, with a score of 10 out of 10.
IEp reported that 80 percent of the lives lost to “terrorist” attacks in 2013 occurred in just five countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.
The influx in “terrorist” attacks raises questions about the effectiveness of the US “War on Terror” launched by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks, which included the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The campaign failed to eliminate or even reduce terrorism, as the report showed a steady increase in the death toll over the last 14 years, from 3,361 in 2000 to 11,133 in 2012 and 17,958 in 2013.
On the contrary, the campaign in general and the US invasion of Iraq in particular served as a recruitment tool for terrorist groups, such as ISIS, as figures show that terrorism rose precipitously in Iraq since 2003.
Critics opposed to US involvement in the conflict with the militants have pointed out that Washington in partnership with its Gulf allies, especially Saudi Arabia, played a role in the formation and expansion of extremist groups like ISIS by arming, financing and politically empowering rebels in Syria and Libya.
A study published in September 2014 by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research revealed that ISIS jihadis appear to be using US military-issued arms and weapons supplied to the “moderate” rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia.
The report said the jihadis disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M-16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt.”
In 2014, violence in Iraq killed more than 17,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014. And in just the first 12 days of 2015, the killings of 519 civilians have been documented, as bloodshed continues since the 2003 US invasion.