US didn't do 'damn thing' against IS in Ramadi, Iran commander says

Qassem Soleimani’s accusation come after Defense Secretary Ash Carter says fleeing Iraqi forces didn’t have will to battle jihadists

The chief of an elite unit in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has accused the US of having “no will” to stop the Islamic State group after the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday.

The comments by General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Guard’s elite Quds force, come just after US Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Iraqi forces of lacking the “will to fight” in an interview aired the day before.

It wasn’t clear whether Soleimani’s remarks came as a direct response to Carter’s, though tensions remain high between the two countries amid negotiations over Iran’s contested nuclear program.

The report in the daily newspaper Javan, which is seen as close to the Guard, quoted Soleimani as saying the US didn’t do a “damn thing” to stop the extremists’ advance on Ramadi.

“Does it mean anything else than being an accomplice in the plot?” he reportedly asked, later saying the US showed “no will” in fighting the Islamic State group.

Soleimani said Iran and its allies are the only forces that can deal with Islamic State group,

In this April 23, 2015 file photo, Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters regain control of the northern neighborhoods, after overnight heavy clashes with Islamic State group militants, in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo, File

“Today, there is nobody in confrontation with (the Islamic State group) except the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as nations who are next to Iran or supported by Iran,” he said.

US officials, including Carter, have said Iraqi forces fled the Islamic State advance on Ramadi without fighting back, leaving behind weapons and vehicles for the extremists. So far, the American approach to the conflict has been to launch airstrikes as part of an international coalition it leads, as well as equipping and training Iraqi forces.

Iran meanwhile has offered advisers, including Soleimani, to direct Shiite militias fighting against the extremists. Iran has said it does not have combat troops fighting in Iraq, though some Revolutionary Guard members have been killed there.