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1st LD: Iraqi forces start military offensives against IS in Anbar, Salahudin provinces

Xinhua, May 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Tuesday commenced two military offensives to drive out the Islamic State (IS) militants from Anbar's provincial capital city of Ramadi and the remaining parts of Salahudin province, a militia spokesman said.

The Iraqi army, police and allied Sunni and Shiite militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, advanced in the early hours of the day from their positions toward the IS-held city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Ahmed al-Asadi, spokesman of the Hashd Shaabi, said in a press conference broadcast by the state-run channel of Iraqiya.

He said that the Iraqi forces now are moving toward Ramadi from three directions and managed to cut the IS supplying routes in south of Ramadi, preparing for liberating the city, Asadi said.

Late on May 17, the IS militants took full control of Ramadi after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their positions in the headquarters of the army's 8th Brigade and the provincial operations command.

The rapid retreat of the security forces and the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province, was seen as a setback to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's efforts to defeat the IS group in Anbar province and then to free the IS-held city of Mosul in the north.

In Salahudin province, Asadi said that the security forces and Hasd Saabi started in the early morning hours a new operation dubbed "Labaiyka Ya Hussein," or (We are at your service, Hussein), who is one of the most revered Imam among the 12 Shiite Imams.

He said the operation was designed to free the areas in the western part of Salahudin province and the northern part of the neighboring Anbar province from the IS militants.

Since March 2, some 30,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of allied Shiite and Sunni militias have involved in Iraq's biggest offensive to recapture the northern part of Salahudin province, including Tikrit and other key towns and villages, from IS militants.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS. Endit