ISIS counterattacks target Iraqi troops in Ramadi

Local tribal leaders said Islamic State still controls about a quarter of Ramadi.

The Iraqi army reached central Ramadi last week and declared the city from ISIS, but it is believed that militants are still present in parts of the city and its suburbs.

At least 15 Iraqi security officials have been killed and a further 22 were injured after multiple Islamic State suicide bombers targeted an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, security officials said. About 700 ISIS fighters were thought to be hiding in the city, Reuters reported.

The worst finally seems over for the civilians of Ramadi, who are beginning to emerge after living for months under Islamic State control.

Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, whose strong backing for the campaign against Islamic State has helped rally Shiites behind Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government, called for local tribes to be enlisted to prevent Islamic State fighters from returning to recaptured areas.

Major Majed Mohammed, who is from CTS, said: “What we are doing now is saving the trapped families”.

Located between Ramadi and Baghdad, Fallujah is a significant Sunni city in its own right, and one with a considerable history of support for Islamist factions, centering around the USA destruction of the city during the occupation. The government believes they are being used as human shields. “They are clearing several other neighbourhoods”.

“We were waiting for the Iraqi army to secure a safe path for us”. Meanwhile, the United States army said Friday that the US-led coalition carried out 24 air raids against IS in Iraq Thursday.

“I just want my father to come back to us”.

Iraqi forces have since claimed to have “liberated” the strategically important city of Ramadi – which was previously overrun with hundreds of ISIS fighters – with the help of a special coalition strike force.

“The government will need to control Falluja before Mosul”, said Jabbar al-Yawar, secretary general of the peshmerga, the forces of the Kurdish regional government fighting Islamic State in northern Iraq, in an interview to al-Hadath TV.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst, said he is concerned that the Iraqi government might be trying to accomplish too much too quickly. USA officials insist a year’s worth of patient training has given Iraqi troops new skills and determination to fight ISIL, also known as ISIS.