The ISIS, a Sunni Muslim terror organization claims and calls the captured areas in Iraq and Syria as its Islamic caliphate. In addition to the targeted houses, the bombing raid heavily damaged adjacent homes.
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With the help of American engineering know-how and air power, Iraqi army forces have driven close to the center of Ramadi, putting pressure on Islamic State forces who are battling ferociously to hold the city. Warplanes struck 15 targets Tuesday and 38 on Wednesday. Others have put the death toll at over 20, with another 30 wounded.
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Iraqi forces announced a counteroffensive shortly afterward Mosul fell but progress has been sluggish and clawing territory back from IS has proven more hard than expected.
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Efforts to hold the city at that time were stymied by a reluctance to deploy Shiite militias in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province and a main city in the Sunni heartland of Iraq.
Since overrunning Ramadi, just 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Baghdad, the Islamic State group has destroyed all the bridges around the city.
Iraqi forces have not yet broken through the front line of ISIL’s defenses.
Iraqi officials described the assault as a fierce urban battle, with their forces facing auto bombs, sniper fire, and explosive traps.
“I think the fall of Ramadi is inevitable”, Colonel Steven H. Warren, the U.S. military spokesman here, said Tuesday. Three medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.
Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said the council was getting information about the military operations from journalists rather than from the military.
The capture of Ramadi, 60 miles from Baghdad, would give the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a badly needed moral victory, and a successful cooperation with the country’s alienated Sunni population.
In November, Iraqi security forces, backed by pro-government militias, had wrested control of roughly half of Ramadi. Eventually, they plan to retake the government center. The U.S. military believes as few as 5,000 civilians remain.
The source reported “The army’s 8th brigade participated alongside the Anti-Terrorism Forces in operations to retake the neighborhoods of Ramadi from ISIS”, pointing out that, “The artillery force of the brigade supported the Anti-Terrorism Forces in the neighborhoods located in central Ramadi, by targeting the shelters and gatherings of the ISIS organization”. Taha charged that the kidnappings were the work of armed factions belonging to the Popular Mobilization Units.
Iraqi forces clearing residential neighbourhoods in Ramadi were finding huge amounts of ammunition and explosives, including rockets made from gas canisters.
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“Without serious security sector reform and serious justice sector reform in Iraq there is absolutely no point engaging in any of these initiatives”, says Ali, also a visiting lecturer and fellow at Princeton University. “The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have both worked with Badr and its powerful leader, Hadi al-Amiri, whom many Sunnis continue to accuse of human rights abuses”.
