US following events in Iraq very closely as situation in Anbar remains volatile

US officials continue to follow events in Iraq's Anbar province "very closely" as the situation remains volatile, White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday. "Iraqi tribes, with support from Iraqi security forces, continue successfully to confront Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL) fighters in and around the city of Ramadi and to prepare to confront extremists in the city of Fallujah," Carney said during a briefing. US officials remain in close contact with all of Iraq's political leaders at the highest levels "about how we can continue to support their efforts to defeat our common enemy and about how there needs to be a unified effort to combat the ISIL and the threat it poses in Anbar," he said. The only way to fight ISIL is through strong coordination between the government of Iraq and local Sunni tribes and officials "who are essential in this effort" because despite the divisions in Iraq, the vast majority of Iraqi citizens reject the extremism that Al-Qaeda represents, Carney said. "We were pleased to see Prime Minister (Nouri) Maliki and (parliament) Speaker (Osama) Nujaifi call on the residents of Anbar to rise up against extremist elements as well as their call on the Iraqi army to operate in a professional manner with the backing of the local population," he said. "That is very key. "We are also encouraged by Grand Ayatollah Sistani's comments that internally displaced residents of Anbar Province are welcome in Najaf and Karbala, which is Iraq's Shi'a heartland, and that they would be received by a committee established to meet their needs," Carney said. The US commitment to assisting Iraq in this effort "is represented both by the military assistance that we are providing and speeding up, but also by the kind of discourse that we have with Iraq's leaders," he said.