With the loss of Anbar Province capital Ramadi, Iraqi military forces today announced the deployment of tanks and artillery to the Anbar frontier, as part of what they termed the impending “Battle of Anbar.”
The deployments come a day after the government issued a call to arms to Shi’ite militias, and some 3,000 militias have advanced to a nearby airbase, preparing to confront ISIS.
At the same time, ISIS has new tanks of its own in the area around Ramadi, because the Iraqi troops fleeing the city left them behind.
That makes the new deployments potentially even riskier, both because ISIS has the same equipment, and because wavering Iraqi military morale means anything deployed to the front lines may well just end up in ISIS hands.
