BAGHDAD — A United Nations report published Saturday finds that the ongoing battle for the city of Ramadi has damaged or destroyed more than 4,500 buildings. The findings, gathered comparing satellite imagery of the city collected in July 2014 to imagery collected in December, reveal that nearly 1,500 buildings have been completely destroyed, the report said.
The Daesh group overran Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, in May after months of clashes with Iraqi government forces. Last month government forces retook the city’s western and central districts under cover of heavy coalition air bombardment.
Lise Grande, the UN’s deputy special representative to Iraq, says the extent of the damage raises concerns about reconstruction, calling the destruction in Ramadi “incomparable” to destruction in other Iraqi cities taken back from Daesh.
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan region’s deputy prime minister said that a much anticipated campaign to recapture Iraq’s northern city of Mosul from Daesh is unlikely to happen this year, dampening hopes the militants could be driven from the country in 2016.
Despite recent gains on the battlefield, Qubad Talabani said he doubted the country’s armed forces would be ready for an operation to drive the insurgents out of their de facto capital in Iraq before 2017.
“I don’t think the Mosul offensive could happen this year,” Talabani told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. “I don’t think the Iraqi armed forces are ready and I don’t think the (US-led) coalition is confident in the ability of everyone to get ready in time for an offensive this year.”
The coalition has been working to train and rebuild the Iraqi security forces, which partially collapsed when the Daesh militants overran Mosul and large swathes of the north in June 2014.
Kurdish officials say the peshmerga, which have emerged as a key ally of the coalition bombing Daesh, will support an offensive to recapture Mosul whenever it happens, but the Iraqi army must take the lead.
“We’re ready to do our part in any offensive to liberate Mosul but I think it’s unfair to expect us to do the lion’s share,” said Talabani, adding it was too soon to comment on the exact nature of the role the peshmerga would play.
Last month the army scored its first major victory since the fall of Mosul, recapturing the western city of Ramadi, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said the insurgents would be routed from the country in 2016. — Agencies
