Soldiers killed in ‘Islamic State’ attack in Iraq

When the Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to the Islamic State last May, the White House called it a “setback”.

Iraqi forces pushed out of central Ramadi Friday to extend their grip on the city, sweeping neighborhoods for pockets of jihadis to flush out and trapped civilians to evacuate.

Dozens of Iraqi forces were killed and injured when a number of ISIS jihadists launched simultaneous suicide attacks on the army base of the 10th Brigade in the northern suburb of Ramadi. Daesh later claimed responsibility for the blasts in an online statement.

The forces were also supported by US-led coalition airstrikes, which significantly reduced ISIS numbers from 1,000 to 150-250. The jihadist group had held the city since May.

He also said: “We are coming to liberate Mosul and it will be the fatal and final blow to Daesh”, using an Arabic acronym for Isis.

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. He said it will not be clear who has won in Ramadi for at least another six months to a year.

The Iraqi state forces have successfully evicted the ISIS forces from Ramadi and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi installed the national flag in the city once the army assumed control of the city center. Most regional and world powers have joined the battle against them, often backing rival groups in complex, multisided civil wars in both Iraq and Syria that make it hard to achieve global unity. Islamic State saw the city’s large Sunni Arab community as a source of recruits.

Iraqi counter-terrorism soldiers in Ramadi Saturday said they were clearing the city of explosives and assisting locals.

A coalition air strike on December 24 in Syria killed Charaffe al Mouadan, a Syria-based Islamic State member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris on November 13 which killed 130 people, Warren said.

The attack is said to be symbolic of the Islamic State group’s brutality and hatred for Iraq’s Shiite majority.