Fall of Ramadi to ISIS: Why air power alone is not enough?

The fall of Ramadi to the ISIS has only indicated that the recent set backs to the outfit has had no impact at all. The injury to Abu Bakr Al-Bhagdadi and the alleged death of second in command, Abu Afri were widely reported in the media over the past month, but appears to have had no impact whatsoever on the outfit.

The Pentagon even confirmed on Saturday that it had killed a key commander, Abu Sayaf, but that too has not deterred the ISIS which took over the key Iraqi city of Ramadi [Triple blow- One more ISIS top man killed]

Why is Ramadi important?

The battle for Ramadi was important for the ISIS as it looked to take more control. Ramadi is the largest city in Iraq's Anbar province. With Ramadi falling to the ISIS, it has ensured control over the most important cities which also include, Fallujah, Tikrit and Mosul.

The Iraq government has termed the situation as grave. In a bid to prevent the take over of Ramadi, the Iraq government had sent three regiments to battle against the ISIS.

In what appeared to be a battle won for the US and Iraq forces who jointly battled the ISIS, they had even managed to ensure that the outfit withdrew its flags from a Ramadi government building.

Ramadi happens to be the capital of Iraq's largest province, Anbar and has a strategic importance. The fall according to many has a huge impact on the war against the ISIS.

Why airstrikes had no impact?

The coalition warplanes had carried out several airstrikes on the ISIS since the past couple of days. However the airstrikes were in-effective as the Iraqi army was just not able to hold ground

The ISIS men continued to advance in large numbers and were able to outdo the Iraq army as they seized control over Ramadi.

This once again raised the important question as to whether the US was doing enough in its battle in Iraq. The problem was that there was not enough re-enforcements on the ground to beat the ISIS and this is where the US had failed.

The Iraqi army has been beaten down several times by the ISIS. The ISIS has brutal fighters and have shown several times in the last few years that it is capable of beating down the Iraqi army hand down.

The death of Abu Sayaf had no impact

On Saturday when the Pentagon claimed that they a key leader Abu Sayaf was killed, it was considered to be a major blow to the ISIS. However it had no impact what so ever.

Sayaf was in charge of some oil wells and the only impact that his death could have possibly had was a drop in the sale of oil in the black market.

Further the propaganda war against the ISIS too had very little impact. News of the death and injury of Bhagdadi and also his second in command, Afri too did not deter the ISIS. Floating such news only turned out to be part of a propaganda war and Bhagdadi had only three days back released an audio tape urging his fighters to battle hard.

The US has however underplayed the take over of Ramadi and said that it was like a cat and mouse game between the ISIS and the Iraqi army. Several times both have captured territory only to lose it. The take over of Ramadi too will be short lived, the US has also said.

However for now, the fall of Ramadi is being seen as a major set back. The ISIS as of now controls the largest city in the Anbar province and this is not good news for the Iraq government, which is planning a fresh strategy with more troops to seize control over the city.