ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An Anbar tribal leader has announced his tribe will remain neutral in any fight between the central Iraqi government and the forces of the Islamic State. “The Iraqi government did not give our tribe even one piece of ammunition, and our tribe has collectively decided to stop fighting ISIS because the Iraqi army abandoned us, therefore it is better we fight for our own destiny,” Sheikh Rafi Abdulkarim Al-Fahdawi of the Albu Fahd tribe told the Al-Mada Iraqi newspaper Friday in Baghdad. “When Ramadi fell to ISIS our forces immediately retreated in Ramadi and we did not care about the disappointments the Iraqi army confronted us with,” he added. Fahdawi said the Albu Fahd tribe had defended areas of eastern Ramadi. “We managed to obtain enough weapons to defend us from ISIS, and we made a buffer wall,” he said. “We attempted a lot to stop the Iraqi army from fleeing, but when they hear gunfire they just run.” The buffer wall Albu Fahd had constructed in the Joiba area of eastern Ramadi was destroyed by ISIS, and the tribe withdrew in Ramadi to a safer place called Husseiba 7 kilometers away from the city center, but the Iraqi army again fled from the area, according to Fahdawi. “The Iraqi joint forces in Ramadi consisted of the SWAT forces, the 8th Iraqi Brigade and the Golden Force, but they left us in the dark of the night and let ISIS enter Ramadi, and now we insist we will not fight for the Iraqi army against ISIS,” he continued. The Islamic State group seized control of Ramadi on May 15, sending Iraqi forces racing out of the city in a major loss despite the support of US-led airstrikes targeting the extremists. Online videos showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment purportedly speeding out of Ramadi with some soldiers gripping onto their sides. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province, apparently fearing the extremists could capture the entirety of the vast Sunni province that saw intense fighting after the 2003 US-led invasion of the country to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
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