Iraqi forces storm Ramadi center, predict victory within days

United States officials have also cautioned against the use of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in retaking Ramadi from the hardline Sunni militants to avoid fanning sectarian tensions.

At the start of the offensive, ISIL mounted an attack with a suicide auto bomber against soldiers and Shia militiamen gathered in Bu Dhiyab village north of Ramadi, killing 14 of them, military sources said.

Recapturing Ramadi is a critical fight not only for a strategic city but also to reestablish the reputation of the Iraqi Security Forces within the country and overseas.

“The fall of Ramadi is inevitable, the end is coming but… it s gonna be a tough fight”, coalition spokesman Steve Warren told U.S. reporters in a videoconference from Baghdad.

Last month, government forces completed their encirclement of the predominantly Sunni Arab city, about 90km (55 miles) west of Baghdad, cutting off militants inside the centre from strongholds elsewhere in Anbar province and in neighbouring Syria.

The Iraqis ran into stiff resistance from the Islamic State, including booby-trapped buildings and improvised explosive devices.

Dozens of families the Islamic State group had been using as human shields in Ramadi escaped to safety Wednesday as Iraqi forces closed in on the jihadists’ last redoubts.

Reuters reported that Iraqi military planes dropped leaflets over Ramadi on Sunday that warned residents to leave the city within 72 hours, advised them to carry proper identification, and provided safe routes out.

Warren said the documents, “orginially distributed in Arabic”, appear to be legitimate, even though there are no examples of ISIL posing as ISF to commit atrocities so far.

But the situation is colored by many complexities, including concern over who is taking the city back.

Instead, the mission is being hailed as an opportunity for the Iraqi Security Forces and elite units to win an important victory and boost their morale. The official added that the suburb of Bakir had been “completely devastated” from airstrikes and shelling.

On Monday, Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said that he had agreed to the deployment of 200 American ground forces in Iraq to help with the operations against the Islamic State.

The jihadist group still controls Mosul, Iraq’s second city.

Officials say the operation marks the most significant progress made by the military since Ramadi fell to the group in May.

The Shiite-dominated Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces were heavily involved in battles that led to the recapture of towns such as Tikrit and Baiji, but they have remained on the fringes in the battle for the Sunni city of Ramadi.

The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria shared two “interesting bits of information” on Tuesday “that may demonstrate that ISIL is beginning to feel some of this pressure that we’ve been applying to them”.

Ramadi, like the rest of Anbar province, is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, the minority community that complains of discrimination by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.