Iraqi forces gain more ground from IS in Anbar province

Iraqi security forces on Monday continued battles against Islamic State (IS) militants and seized new areas in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, security and medical sources said.

The troops and allied Shiite and Sunni tribesmen, backed by U.S. coalition and Iraqi aircraft, freed Sharika district in central Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops also managed to break a siege imposed earlier by extremist militants on a government compound in downtown Ramadi, the source said.

An army major and six security members were killed during the clashes.

Eleven IS militants were killed in the fighting, the source added.

In Ramadi's eastern suburb of Soufiyah, the troops killed three IS militants and wounded five others in sporadic clashes.

The battles in Ramadi were part of ongoing clashes between Iraqi forces and IS militants, forcing tens of thousands of families to flee, mainly to Baghdad.

According to UN figures, at least 2.7 million Iraqis have been displaced since January 2014, including 400,000 from Anbar province, making the Iraq crisis "one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the world today."

Also in Anbar province, at least six people were killed and 13 others injured in airstrikes by Iraqi aircraft on a village near the IS-held town of Garma, east of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a local medical source said.

The IS group has seized parts of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.

The security situation in Iraq has been drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS militants. Endit