Iraqi forces close in on remaining Islamic State post in Ramadi

Iraqi security forces hold a national flag as they enter the southern neighborhoods of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Wednesday.

The strikes came a day after the US dropped some 50 bombs in and around Ramadi in six separate strikes on the city, said Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the operation.

When Iraqi forces reclaim Ramadi, they will inherit a virtual ghost town.

Ramadi was Daesh’s biggest prize of 2015, abandoned by government forces in May in a major setback for Baghdad and for the Iraqi troops that have been trained by the United States since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Several officials said groups of IS fighters were trying to slip through gaps in the Iraqi forces’ net around the city.

Iraqi military officials said IS terrorists are trying to slow the Iraqi advance by using suicide bombers, booby traps and snipers, plus civilians as human shields. Iraqi officials say they believe civilians will be able to get out but coalition officials report they have only witnessed small groups doing so. After Iraqi forces pulled out of Ramadi in May, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter questioned whether the Iraqis had the “will to fight”.

They have taken control of several districts since launching the operation five days ago.

On Tuesday, the government reported progress in recapturing some areas in Ramadi from the militants who control about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria. Ramadi is of strategic importance because “Anbar province is the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim population, and the city is very close to Baghdad. We are stepping in inch by inch retaking Ramadi which we lost back earlier in the year and we are more or less near the centre and we’re making significant progress in making sure that we can sustain and minimise collatoral damage and get rid of ISIS (Islamic State) once and for all”.

American military advisers remained outside Ramadi at the former USA military hub of al-Taqaddum. It was the government’s biggest defeat since the Islamic State swept through areas in the country’s north and west, including Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in the summer of 2014.

Other statements by the group claimed to have killed more than 30 Iraqi soldiers, with suicide bombs and by detonating hidden explosives inside buildings, according to translations of the statements by the SITE Intelligence Group, a research firm in Bethesda, Md., that monitors jihadi postings on the Internet. There was a lot of questions surrounding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces in the area, with the most powerful Sunni political leader saying that the Prime Minister was unaware that indeed forces pulled out until afterward.

Belawi said the evacuated civilians will be taken to a camp near Habbaniya army base, where they will undergo security checks to ascertain whether any Islamic State loyalists are among them.