Iraqi forces to retake Mosul from Islamic State after Ramadi secured: PM

Iraqi government forces pressed on Wednesday with their offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from the major city of Ramadi as a wave of attacks across the country killed at least 15 civilians, officials said.

Troops from Iraq’s elite counter-terrorist service have taken the lead in the battle, Army Col. Steve Warren said Wednesday in a phone interview from Baghdad. To back up the bridge assault, US warplanes conducted 33 airstrikes within the last 24 hours, he said. He said around 50 families who had been trapped inside Ramadi had managed to reach safe areas under government control.

Nevertheless, Islamic State has made some high-profile gains, such as the historic Syrian town of Palmyra and the city centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province.

To guard against sectarian tensions, the government deployed a mix of Sunni tribal fighters, police officers and special operations soldiers in the operation that began early Tuesday, with air support from the United States-led military coalition.

Iraqi forces reported progress on several fronts.

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 jihadis’ last redoubts. “God willing, we will liberate Ramadi soon”.

Iraqi military officials have said the offensive will take days, with soldiers facing stiff resistance from the militants and an urban landscape laden with hidden explosives.

He said some Shiite militias are stationed on the southern outskirts of Ramadi, but are not directly involved in ongoing operations, and Sunni militias comprised primarily of Anbar tribesmen are tasked with holding ground already recaptured by Iraq’s military and clearing it of IEDs.

Such a victory would be a tremendous morale boost for Iraqi forces, and corresponding blow to the Islamic State’s image as irresistible conquerors, while also paving the way for an even more decisive battle to retake the Islamic State’s Iraqi capital of Mosul.

A medical official confirmed causalities.

But tens of thousands of civilians remain in Ramadi, and “ISIS is surrounding them and preventing them from leaving”, said Hikmet Suleiman, an adviser to the governor of Anbar province.

Taken together, the statements were the first assertion by the militant group that it had inflicted serious damage on Iraqi military forces engaged in the Ramadi siege.

Colonel Warren said the IS group had positioned around 100 fighters along the main approach to the government complex.

Ramadi has suffered extensive destruction in months of fighting and General Fadlawi said some of the booby-trapped houses had to be remote-detonated to avoid casualties among the ordinance experts.

He said thew were mostly children, women and elderly men who raised white flags as they approached the security forces. The group’s usual communications avenues had been uncharacteristically quiet in recent days, other than one site’s release of photographs claiming to show that areas of Ramadi were calm and still under the Islamic States’ control.