ICEJ NEWS REPORTS:
Good news and bad news in the fight against IS
The historic city of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, is shaping up to be a long-term battlefield between the Sunni Islamic State (IS) terror militia and Shi’ite militias in Iraq being led and armed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran. The US-led coalition conducted several air strikes on IS positions in and around the city Monday, apparently designed to slow the consolidation of IS forces their ahead of a hoped-for advance by the Iraqi national army and police units. However, the total collapse of those units deployed in Anbar over recent days makes it likely that any counter-offensive on the ground will have to come from the Iranian-led forces. Meanwhile, in neighboring Syria, IS forces captured natural gas fields northeast of the ancient city of Palmyra on Monday, threatening the Assad regime’s ability to provide electricity in the areas it still controls.Click here for a look at strategies to counter IS in Iraq and Syria (PDF) 
