News On The Ground From Baghdad

It can be hard to find a reporter in Baghdad these days. Long gone are the days of the American-led war, when every important international news source had a well-staffed Baghdad bureau, filled with on the scene reporters, local fixers and translators.

So we were very fortunate to have Reuters' Suadad Al-Salhy, an experienced Iraqi reporter, join us during our Jan. 7 hour on the growing crisis in that country's Anbar province. She gave us a clear-eyed view of the situation in Fallujah.

"We are facing different situations in Ramadi and Fallujah in whole at this time. We have jihadist militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), we have tribal fighters and and at Fallujah, we have a small group from other insurgents, like Ansar al Dine and other small groups. They were breaking into other small groups outside Anbar, but they joined the groups together in Fallujah."

Al-Salhy also noted that it's hard to tell just where many of these militant groups in Anbar came from — or if they spilled over from the ongoing conflict in neighboring Syria.

"We cannot say specifically, they just came a few days ago. This part has witnessed many operations and attacks during the last few weeks. ISIS was trying to build its own state on the ground this time by launching high profile attacks on the border towns which belong to Iraq. So we have no idea how many specifically, but we are talking about hundreds of high profile, well-trained militants who cross the border from Syria."

That surge of militants has fully occupied the city of Fallujah, al-Salhy said.

"Fallujah is still under siege today. The central government kept sending forces to reign in the attacks in Anbar province. There's fighting in Ramadi, and in Fallujah they're expecting a big battle will erupt any minute. But there's no fighting in Fallujah — and even the shelling that was launched by the Iraqi army into the northern part of Fallujah was stopped this morning, when the tribal leaders in Ramadi and Fallujah made a deal with the central government to try to convince the militants to leave the city. In return, the army has not been allowed to enter the city and attack the militants inside the city. There will be talks in the next few days. Right now, they are not planning on launching any attacks targeting Fallujah."

Reports that some of the weapons used by the Iraqi government have come from Iran, traditionally an enemy, can't be verified, al-Salhy said.

"We have no evidence that Iranians are involved. But we know that for sure, the Russians are involved for sure. They came out of purchases that Iraq made in the last year — helicopters, Russain helicopters are definitely taking part at this time and because of this it seems like Iraqi are making great progress in Anbar at this time.  Against ISI, they destroyed many big camps that Iraqi troops couldn't reach since the US troops left Iraq."

And although the fighting and armed conflict is a mere 40 miles away from the capital in Baghdad, the central government and the people who work for it in the city aren't worried, al-Salhy said.

"To be honest, no [people in Baghdad are not worried]. Already, it's as though it was known and it was expected. Already in the last few months Al Qaeda was showing up every time and planning high profile attacks against the local government in Anbar, in Ramadi and Fallujah and the towns along the Iraqi-Syrian border. And everybody was expecting it was a matter of time, the government hadn't done anything to treat it. So it wasn't a big surprise when they took control over the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. They were just waiting for a suitable time to announce their control over these cities."

During a chaotic and important time in Iraq, we're grateful to reporters like Suadad Al-Salhy for helping to keep us and our listeners informed on what's going on.