Losing Ramadi – the capital of sprawling western Anbar province and Iraq’s Sunni heartland – was a major blow to the Iraqi government.
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The U.S. Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. Military operation against ISIL, is real-time tweeting Iraqi and U.S. forces’ actions against ISIL and can be followed at @OIRSpox. By nightfall, Iraqi troops were within half a mile of the city’s government compound, they added.
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Iraqi soldiers began a fierce assault to wrest control of the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State on Monday night, and by midday Tuesday they had battled their way toward the city center despite heavy resistance, an army commander said.
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He said American military advisers remained outside the city at al-Taqaddum, a desert air base that is serving as a training site.
ISIS seized Ramadi in May in an embarrassing defeat for Iraqi forces which raised questions from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter over whether Iraqis lacked the will to fight. Iraqi forces on Tuesday reported progress in the military operation to retake the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State group, saying they made the most significant incursion into the city since it fell to the militants in May.
“Our forces are advancing toward the government complex in the centre of Ramadi”, the Iraqi counter-terrorism units’ spokesman Sabah al-Numani said.
“We built temporary bridges on the Euphrates and our forces were able to cross the river to enter residential areas and gain access to the city centre”, a brigadier general said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The fighting in Ramadi is led by the elite counter-terrorism force, backed by US-led coalition air strikes and also supported by forces from the police, the army and Sunni tribes opposed to the jihadists.
Iraqi airplanes dropped leaflets on Sunday urging residents of Ramadi to evacuate within 72 hours, warning of an impending operation, and suggesting two evacuation routes.
IS has lost control of several key towns in Iraq to government and Kurdish forces since overrunning large swathes of the country’s west and north in June 2014 and proclaiming the creation of a “caliphate” that also extended into neighbouring Syria.
The pamphlet declares to the civilian population, estimated at between 4,000 and 10,000 people, that Iraqi security forces are working to free them from the occupiers.
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If the attack to capture Ramadi succeeds, it will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq.
