(VOVworld) - The United States signaled no intent to shift its strategy in Iraq's war on Monday, even as the fall of the city of Ramadi to Islamic State.

The loss of the western Iraqi city to the militants represents the biggest defeat for Iraq's government since mid-2014, when Islamic State swept into Iraq and seized more than a third of the country.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said that there's no denying that this is indeed a setback, but there's also no denying that Washington will help the Iraqis take back Ramadi. At the Pentagon, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren urged reporters to not "read too much" into the setback in Ramadi and said that to slowly but surely retaking other parts of Iraq, and that is with Iraqi ground forces and coalition air power.