IS attack on Iraq police trainees kills 12

Camp Speicher was the scene of the Islamic State group’s massacre of 1,700 Shiite soldiers who were killed in mid-2014 as the militants advanced into Iraq from Syria.

“We don’t think the enemy has enough combat power in downtown Ramadi to be able to recapture the city”, he said. That densely populated urban center in the north, with triple the population of Ramadi, has served as Islamic State’s center of operations in Iraq since the militants overran it 18 months ago. Iraqi forces launched airstrikes and ground attacks on the city in recent weeks.

It is claimed the terrorists were in a building that was being used by ISIS thugs to coordinate suicide bomb attacks against the Iraqi army.

Before Iraqi forces can push north, Hertling said, Abadi’s government “has to coordinate with those tribes”.

According to AFP, the fighters managed to take control of the base “when the army had to pull out because it suffered casualties” but Iraqi forces have since re-taken control, backed by an aerial coalition.

“You’re seeing them taking pride again in being Iraqis, in coming together as a nationalistic force”. At least 20 police were also injured. “Others had designs on further attacking the West”. As Colonel Warren warns, “It’s still got fangs”.

However, ISIL forces remain near Kobane. “The suicide attacks had been stopped and, without any command and control, the Isis fighters had retreated into another part of the city”. The Iraqi Army remains inept and decadent. Despite the declaration of victory with regards to re-claiming the area, Defence Ministry officials have said it will take more time to completely liberate the al-Anbar province from IS forces.

The IS fighters have also fled the city’s government headquarters, the last major redoubt in Ramadiby noon.

The Sunni extremist group seized the provincial capital in May. To prevent the return of ISIS to Ramadi, the Iraqi government must act fast, but not with haste.