[AnNahar] Iraqi forces retook an area west of Ramadi on Saturday as they pressed their operation aimed at sealing off the jihadists who captured the city two weeks ago, commanders said."The Iraqi army and the Hashed al-Shaabi liberated the Anbar traffic police building in the 5K area west of Ramadi after a fierce fight," an army officer said.
Hashed al-Shaabi ("popular mobilization" in Arabic) is an umbrella for mostly Shiite militia and volunteers that has played a key role in Iraq's fight against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) group.
"The battle forced IS to withdraw from the building, which they had used as a base, and pull back into Ramadi city," the officer told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Iraq forces have launched wide operations aimed at severing the supply lines of the jihadists who control most of Anbar, a vast Sunni province in western Iraq of which Ramadi is the capital.
"The security forces today are tightening their stranglehold on Ramadi, from the traffic police building to the west, from the university to the south and from the other sides too," Anbar police chief Hadi Rzayej said.
He said ordnance disposal teams were busy removing roadside kabooms and checking buildings for booby traps in reconquered positions on the outskirts of Ramadi.
Iraqi government and allied forces retook the southern districts of Taesh, Humeyrah and the Anbar university compound earlier this week.
The jihadists seized Ramadi on May 17, using an unprecedented wave of suicide vehicle-borne kabooms to force a retreat from the forces that had managed to hold some positions in the city for more than a year.
An army colonel said IS unleashed eight suicide boom-mobiles on a military base in eastern Anbar Saturday. Forces equipped with anti-tank systems were able to stop all of them, he said.
"Army forces managed to repel a Daesh (IS) attack involving eight vehicle bombs driven by eight jacket wallahs," said the colonel at the base in Al-Shiha, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
He said they used Kornet anti-tank guided missiles "recently delivered to the security forces".
The United States also announced after the fall of Ramadi that it was sending 2,000 Swedish-developed AT4 unguided anti-tank weapons to help the Iraqi forces counter the threat of car and truck bombs.
As they attempt to isolate Anbar from other provinces, Iraqi forces have also been fighting in Salaheddin province, whose capital Tikrit was recaptured two months ago but where IS still holds territory.
Federal and Hashed al-Shaabi forces have been making progress in the Baiji area, around 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Baghdad, which commands access to a key road leading to western Anbar.
| The Rudaw report on the same action notices different aspects of the thing: |
"The Iraq Army and security forces are advancing towards Ramadi on the western and southern fronts of the city, and our military plans have been successful so far," the military source told the Al-Mada newspaper.
The source said Iraqi forces had launched a multi-pronged assault on ISIS elements in the area of Sarsar, adding that warplanes had pounded the myrmidons' arsenals and bases in the area.
Over the last three days, military operations to recapture the Anbar province have reportedly retaken 65 square kilometers from ISIS.