BAGHDAD — Reports about the military operations in the Anbar province suggest that the “decisive moment” remains elusive. There are battles involving Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants, fighters from the province’s tribes and members of the regular military forces, with no clear winning team on the ground.
These conditions drive many politicians and security experts to believe that what is happening in the volatile province is a kind of a war of attrition that may widen and thus pave the way for a Syrian scenario in Iraq.