BAGHDAD, May 21 (UPI) -- The United States is expediting a shipment of 1,000 antitank rockets to the Iraqi military, to combat the Islamic State strategy of using expansive suicide car bomb attacks.
The shipment is expected to arrive in early June, according to The New York Times. The United States is attempting to further support the Iraqi military after the loss of Ramadi, capital of the Anbar province, to the Islamic State on Friday.
The Obama administration has called the fall of Ramadi a "setback" that will only be a temporary defeat and not change the White House's strategy of fighting the Islamic State or its support of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
The Islamic State captured Ramadi in an offensive that involved about 30 car bombs, 10 of which had the same explosive impact as the Oklahoma City bombing and "took out entire city blocks" in Ramadi, an anonymous senior Department of State official told The New York Times.
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"You'd have to be delusional not to take something like this and say, what went wrong and how do you fix it?" the State Department official said. "This is an extremely serious situation."
Many Iraqi military forces are physically and psychologically damaged by the car bombs and the U.S. objective is to work with Iraqi political leaders and commanders to prevent further retreat.
The Iraqis were "licking their wounds a bit" as they worked with U.S. advisers to create a counteroffensive, according to the official.
The Obama administration rejects the use of U.S. ground combat troops in the fight against the Islamic State, instead supporting a strategy of air strikes and strategic special operation missions to kill or capture key militant leaders.
Prime Minister al-Abadi initially requested the antitank rockets during his visit to the United States in April.
