Iraq forces advance into centre of ISIL-held Ramadi

Iraqi security forces advanced Tuesday into the centre of Ramadi city, which has been under the control of ISIL militants since May, a security official said.

Iraqi soldiers in northern Ramadi on December 21, 2015, ahead of their push into the ISIL-held. AP Photo

BAGHDAD // Iraqi security forces on Tuesday moved into the centre of Ramadi for a final push to retake the city from ISIL, and say it should be liberated within three days.

“We went into the centre of Ramadi from several fronts and we began purging residential areas,” said Sabah Al Noman, spokesman for the Iraqi elite counter-terrorism service.

“The city will be cleared in the coming 72 hours. We did not face strong resistance, only snipers and suicide bombers, and this is a tactic we expected.”

The push on Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western province of Anbar, was launched overnight.

Soldiers drove down deserted streets of the bombed-out city, entering homes to look for booby traps and retrieve shells and rockets from abandoned ISIL posts.

The fighting in Ramadi is led by the counter-terrorism force, backed by US-led coalition air strikes and supported by fighters from the police, army and Sunni tribes opposed to the extremists.

ISIL has lost several key towns since Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region started fighting back after the devastating offensive 18 months ago.

The mainly Shiite Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitaries were heavily involved in the recapture of towns including Tikrit and Baiji, but they have stayed on the fringes in the fight for Ramadi.

Retaking the ISIL bastion would be the Iraqi federal forces’ most significant victory so far.

“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.

ISIL fighters took full control of Ramadi on May 17, after assailing the army with wave after wave of car and truck bombs.

The militants built tunnels to move without being exposed to the daily coalition raids but their supply lines were gradually cut and the military estimated last week that there no more than 300 fighters left in the city.

The breakthrough came this month when counter-terrorism forces retook the south-western neighbourhood of Al Tameem.

After taking a few days to secure their new positions.

Leaflets urging the population to flee were dropped over the weekend.

“The distance between our forces and the governmental compound, which is located in the central district of Hoz, is less than a kilometre,” said the brigadier general, adding that clashes were continuing.

The provincial headquarters is believed to be one of the main ISIL bases in the city and was at the heart of deadly fighting earlier this year.

According to another military official because he is not authorised to talk to the press, 15 families managed to escape from Hoz in the past 24 hours.

“They were able to flee the lockdown imposed by Daesh on civilians and they found shelter with the army on the southern side of the city,” he said.

The senior officer said the civilians were mostly children, women and elderly men, who were screened and then taken to a safe area on the edge of Ramadi.

Iraq’s defence minister, Khaled Al Obeidi, and other officials said in recent days they believed there were still a few civilians in Ramadi being used as human shields by ISIL.

The coalition said its aircraft had carried out six strikes on ISIL targets in the Ramadi area on Tuesday alone.

“That’s been the pace we’ve maintained for the past month,” said the coalition’s spokesman, Colonel Steve Warren.

“We certainly encourage the Iraqi security forces to continue their push into the city and we’ll provide them with the air support they need,” he added.

* Agence France-Presse