US Says Iraqis Poised To Retake Ramadi

The U.S. military is encouraging Iraqi forces to make a final push to recapture Ramadi from Islamic State jihadists who seized the Anbar provincial capital in May, a spokesman said Tuesday.

During the past few months, the security forces and allied militias, backed by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, were fighting with extremist militants in Baiji and the nearby Iraq’s largest oil refinery, but the two sides have been involved in fierce tug-of-war battles. “There are four approaches into the city with Iraqi security forces occupying all four of those approaches and squeezing in”.

To put it another way: If Ramadi was Washington, Iraqi forces would be in the outer suburbs, or near Falls Church, pushing their way to Arlington, Warren said.

Located 100 kilometers (63 miles) west of Baghdad, Ramadi has been under Daesh control since May.

When Islamic State terrorists took control of the city in May, Iraqi officials said the government would reclaim the city within a matter of days.

Col Warren said IS had developed a strong defensive system in and around Ramadi, including using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to create what amounted to minefields.

It was not immediately clear whether the fighting on Wednesday against Islamic State, which holds swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria, had further damaged the refinery.

On Tuesday, the United States said it believed now was the time to retake Ramadi.

Baiji lies at a crossroads between several key fronts in the country, and a general in the Salaheddin province predicted the area would be fully reclaimed soon.

The troops and allied Shiite and Sunni paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, carried out attacks at dawn after heavy overnight bombardment on the IS positions in town of Baiji, a few 200 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, nearby Baiji’s oil refinery, and the small town of Seiniyah, just west of the battleground in Baiji, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

He added that it would take determined efforts by Iraqi troops to break these lines and move into the city.