Ramadi fell after the Iraqi army deserted the city, the channel added, in a withdrawal echoing the military’s shock departure from Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul in June last year.
Shiite militias ordered in Anbar
Soon after the fall, Iraqi state television said the country’s prime minister has ordered Shiite militias to be prepared to go into Anbar province.
State TV says Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made the order Sunday. It did not elaborate.
Anbar province is primarily Sunni and many worried sending Shiite militias into the region could spark greater outrage among those still there.
Meanwhile, officials told Agence France-Press that ISIS militants on Sunday took over the provincial operations command center in Ramadi, putting the jihadists on the brink of capturing the Iraqi city, officials said.
“Anbar operations command has been cleared,” Muhannad Haimour, spokesman and adviser to the province’s governor, told AFP. Several security officials confirmed the retreat.
Security sources also told Reuters that ISIS militants overran one of the last remaining districts held by government forces in Ramadi on Sunday and besieged a key army base on the edge of the western provincial capital, security sources said.
The militants seized most of Ramadi on Friday, planting their black flag on the local government headquarters in the center of the city, but a contingent of Iraqi Special Forces was holding out in the Malaab neighborhood.
Those forces retreated on Sunday to an area east of the city after suffering heavy casualties, security sources said, bringing Ramadi to the brink of falling to Islamic State.
It would be the first major urban center to be seized by the insurgents in Iraq since security forces and paramilitary groups began pushing them back last year............http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/05/17/Iraq-Ramadi-falls-to-ISIS-after-army-leaves-city-.html
17/5/15
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Islamic State seizes Iraqi army base, PM to send in Shi'ite fighters...
ReplyDeleteIslamic State militants drove security forces from a key military base in western Iraq on Sunday and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorized the deployment of Shi'ite paramilitaries to wrest back control of the mainly Sunni province.
Members of the security forces said they had withdrawn from the Anbar Operations Command after it came under attack by the insurgents, who have now trapped them in an area to the west of the city of Ramadi.
One officer among them who asked to remain unnamed said the militants were urging the security forces via loudspeaker to discard their weapons, and promising them safety in return.
The recent Islamic State gains in Anbar province represent the biggest victory for the insurgents in Iraq since security forces and Shi'ite paramilitary groups began pushing them back last year....REUTERS
17/5/15
At least 40 Iraqi security personnel were killed in three separate ISIL suicide car bomb attacks in Iraq’s Ramadi city, the capital of Anbar province, Sunday, a security official told...
ReplyDeleteLieutenant Mervan Ad Dalimi said that the casualties occurred when gunmen carried out suicide attacks on buildings of an operations command center and a military headquarters in the area.
Also, seven police officers were killed and 20 others were injured in a separate clash between ISIL and Iraqi security guards in the city, Lieutenant Ali Hammad said.
17/5/15
Islamic State fighters broke into a key military base in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Sunday, army sources said...
ReplyDeleteThe base is located on the western edge of the provincial capital Ramadi, which has been largely overrun by the insurgents since Friday.
.jpost.com by Reuters
17/5/15
Daesh has taken control of Ramadi city, the capital of Anbar province, after overrunning the last stand made by Iraqi forces in the area, local sources told Anadolu Agency Sunday...
ReplyDeleteThe heavily-armed Daesh militants were now in full control after local police and Iraqi army forces withdrew from the city, the sources said.
The militants have reportedly set on fire a gas station and several government buildings in the city.
Following the development, Iraqi Prime Ministe Haidar al-Abadi instructed security forces and Sunni tribal fighters to enter Anbar province to stop the advance of Daesh, according to the Iraqi state television............http://www.ellanodikis.net/2015/05/iraq-daesh-takes-control-of-anbars.html
17/5/15