Isis routs Iraqi troops from most of Ramadi

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Isis routs Iraqi troops from most of Ramadi

Martin Chulov in Beirut
Friday 15 May 2015 19.19 BST

Iraqi troops have been routed by Islamic State forces from most of Ramadi, consolidating the militant group’s control over the capital of Anbar province, which covers more than one-third of the country.

Isis militants raised their flags over the government compound in the centre of the city on Friday little more than 12 hours after using car bombs to breach blast walls and open a path for fighters who stormed a police headquarters and military base. A British Isis fighter reportedly died in a suicide attack during the assault.

Civilians were fleeing the fighting along the perilous highway towards Baghdad, much of which is also controlled by Isis. Iraqi officials in Ramadi said they had pleaded for help ahead of the attack and now feared that the rest of the city would soon fall: a result that would give the terror organisation its biggest victory in Iraq this year.

It would also mark a significant defeat for Iraqi forces, who had allied with several powerful Sunni tribes in a bid to defend Ramadi and stop Isis from taking control of the highways west to Syria and Jordan, as well as the water supply to southern Iraq which is regulated by a dam on the Euphrates river that runs through the city.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/15/iraqi-troops-routed-by-isis-ramadi

[leveymg]

1. Operation Iraqi Freedom, Part 2, starts to wind down.

The partition of Iraq is almost complete.

Almost too many ironies about our role in this and the rest of the Sunni-Shi'ia wars to mention.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. The Biden forcast.

You think maybe we have had enough of cleaning up the Queen of England's f--ups?

[bemildred]

3. Officials: Islamic State tightens grip on capital of Iraq’s Anbar province

BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants tightened their grip on Ramadi on Saturday as officials, police and residents accused the Sunni extremists of executing dozens of civilians and blowing up homes in the capital of Iraq’s largest province.

On Thursday, the insurgent group launched a brutal offensive involving car bombings and heavy shelling to seize Ramadi, which is about 80 miles west of Baghdad. The militants controlled most of the city by Friday afternoon, hoisting the group’s black flag over government buildings as pro-government forces retreated.

“They blew up the houses of the officers and [tribal] sheiks who fought them,” said Hamid Shandoukh, a Ramadi police colonel, speaking by telephone from the Malaab area of the city.

The attack is a significant setback to Iraq’s U.S.-backed government, which is waging a military campaign to retake territory that the Islamic State seized in sweeping advances last summer. The United States has assumed a prominent role in that effort, leading an international coalition that is conducting airstrikes against the extremist group in Iraq as well as in Syria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/officials-islamic-state-tightens-grip-on-key-iraqi-city-a-day-after-assault/2015/05/16/6f944498-fb33-11e4-a47c-e56f4db884ed_story.html