Iraq claims liberation of Ramadi from ISIS is a major gain

#ISIS #ramadi #Iraqiforces #Tikrit The Iraq army has claimed that it has captured the key city of Ramadi and see this as a major victory against Islamic State but, a US defense official has said it has, so far, not been able to to confirm the Iraqis' claims. If confirmed, then the capture of Ramadi, capital of mainly Sunni-Muslim Anbar province in the Euphrates River valley west of the capital, would be a big blow to ISIS since it will deprive IS militants of their biggest prize of 2015.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 28 December 2015.

The Iraqi army had encircled the city for weeks and made the final thrust to seize the central administration complex on Sunday. Iraq's counter-terrorism forces have raised the Iraqi flag above the complex on Monday and the joint operations spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool has said, in a statement broadcast on state television, that Ramadi has been liberated.
It may be recalled that the Iraqi army had already retaken the city of Tikrit from the jihadists in the spring. The final stronghold for IS in Iraq is Mosul in the north which could be the next target of the government. The number of people killed in this battle have not been disclosed but, the government has said that most civilians had been evacuated before it launched its assault.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Iraqi city of Ramadi falls to Islamic State, troops abandon weapons and flee

#ramadi #ISIS #Iraq #johnkerry The Iraqi city of Ramadi has fallen to the Islamic State following days of intense fighting and bombings by the terror group and Iraqi troops have abandoned their weapons and have fled the scene. Black flags have been raised over local government headquarters.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 18 May 2015.
Spokesman for the governor of Anbar province has confirmed that Ramadi has fallen … the military is fleeing. The provincial command center in the city had fallen into the hands of the ISIS – this has been informed by a colonel who is among troops who had withdrawn.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has issued orders for the government forces to "hold their positions" and has called on troops, tribesmen and other elite forces to push the militants out of Ramadi.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is on an official visit to South Korea. He has said that he was confident the loss of Ramadi would be reversed and also re-iterated his warning that the fight against IS would be a long one.
The number of casualties is continuously on the increase and approximately 500 people - militants and civilians - have been killed in Ramadi in the last two days. Moreover, around 8,000 have fled as IS launched a fierce offensive of suicide car bomb attacks.
It has also been reported that 15 Iraqi troops and police died on Sunday in four near-simultaneous car bombings. AS a result, the soldiers retreated leaving behind their vehicles and weapons.
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ISIS shoots dead 10 doctors who refused to treat wounded jihadists

#ISIS #jihadists #Mosul #Tikrit #AshCarter #SouthKorea That the ISIS hates refusal has once again come to light when they shot dead 10 doctors who did not agree to treat wounded jihadists in Iraq. This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 9 April 2015.
The summary execution by the bloodthirsty militants happened in a location near Mosul when the militants fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq savagely executed the doctors who refused to treat wounded members of the terrorist organization. The location was the battle-ravaged area 15 miles south of the extremists' northern Iraqi stronghold Mosul. Video released has captured the moment the fighters killed the doctors with a bullet to the head.

As per information, the ISIS jihadists had been fighting local groups in the Hammam al-Alil area and a number of them sustained injuries that necessitated medical treatment. But, the doctors refused saying that they do not support the terror group's activities. That led to their execution.
Observers have described the city of Mosul as being a massive open-air prison. The residents here are subjected to barbaric torture at the hands of the ISIS terrorists. The jihadists had, reportedly, executed 60 Sunni tribal fighters in Anbar province of Iraq on charges of collaborating with the Iraqi security forces.
Iraqi Army soldiers and the Iran-backed volunteer Shiite militias have joined up with the Iraqi regime to have successfully pushed back the ISIS from important towns and villages. The liberation of Tikrit was an example. Tikrit was the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a strategically important location and the Iraqi Army will now try to regain control of Mosul and eventually force ISIS out of the country.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has indicated that the U.S. has made progress against ISIS in Iraq but was unable to make any prediction on how long the fight will take. He was interacting at a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart and admitted that he could not say with confidence that it was the beginning of the end for ISIS in Iraq.

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US carries out air strikes on ISIS near Haditha Dam in western Iraq

In order to protect its interests and those of Iraq, the US has now carried out a series of air strikes on Islamic State militants close to the vital Haditha dam in western Iraq bbc.com.
These are among the more than 130 air strikes carried out since early August.
The latest US strikes, the first in the area, were to protect the Iraqi forces and Sunni tribesmen in control of the dam. The Islamic State fighters have targeted a number of dams in their offensive and have captured the facility at Fallujah.
A US official has clarified that the strikes were carried out at the request of the Iraqi government and in keeping with the US mission to protect its personnel and facilities in Iraq.
The Pentagon's press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, has added that these strikes were meant to prevent terrorists from further threatening the security of the dam, which remains under control of Iraqi security forces, with support from Sunni tribes.
The US has carried out a number of air strikes to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces as they try to halt the advance of the IS militants in the north and west.
The IS militants had taken the largest dam, at Mosul, but US air strikes helped force them out and it had attempted to capture Haditha dam, on the Euphrates valley in western Anbar province – this is Iraq's second largest dam.
Incidentally, IS also controls other key national assets like several oil and gas fields in western Iraq and Syria.
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