The coalition also struck targets near Mosul, Fallujah and Ramadi, where Iraqi ground forces said they had taken control on Sunday of the last Islamic State stronghold in the western city.
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Brigadier General Hamid al-Fatlawi, commander of the Iraqi army’s Eighth Division, said that Iraqi forces had seen limited direct combat around the complex, but that the Islamic State had used suicide bombers and auto bombs to try to fend off the assault before its militants fled.
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Ramadi is the capital of the mainly Sunni Muslim Anbar province in the fertile Euphrates River valley, two hours drive west of Baghdad.
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“The operation is nearly wrapped up”, said Iraq’s counter-terrorism services (CTS) spokesman Sabah al-Numan.
“CTS have made more progress; they’re several hundred metres (yards) closer to the government complex”, Warren said.
Leading up to the incursion security forces airdropped leaflets over the city of Ramadi on December 20 calling for local residents to leave the city ahead of a military offensive against Islamic State group militants.
Located 110 kilometers west of Baghdad, Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, which extends from the outskirts of Baghdad to Iraq’s borders with Syria and Jordan. “Booby trapped houses and roadside bombs are all over the streets, they have to be cleared; air surveillance is helping detect vehicle bombs and suicide bombers before they get to us”.
Warren said USA officials found a pamphlet in Fallujah that was distributed to IS fighters, calling on them to disguise themselves as Iraqi security forces and then film themselves committing atrocities, such as killing and torturing civilians and blowing up mosques.
At least five members of the security forces were killed since Friday, according to several security sources, although the government has not divulged an overall casualty toll for the Ramadi operation.
He said about 75 percent of central Ramadi was still under control of the militants, including neighborhoods such as Mallab, where civilians are still thought to remain. Still, much of the city’s downtown remains in the hands of the militants, Iraqi officials said.
The Iraqi military had said on Wednesday that they plan to reclaim Ramadi over the coming days.
Shiite militias backed by Iran, which have played a major role in other offensive against ISIL, have been kept away by the Iraqi government from the battlefield in Ramadi to avoid sectarian tensions.
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The troops have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Iraq’s largest province of Anbar from the IS militants, who have seized most of Anbar and tried to advance towards Baghdad.
