Iraqi forces continue major offensive against IS in Anbar province

Iraqi security forces on Tuesday continued a major offensive to free key cities and towns held by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar.

The security forces, allied paramilitary Shiite militias known as Hashd Shaabi or popular mobilization, and Sunni tribesmen fought heavy clashes with IS militants. They managed to seize Sheikh Masoud area, which controls a strategic road between the IS-held provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and the town of Khaldiyah, a leading figure of Hashd Shaabi, Ghasan al-Ethawi, told reporters.

"Clearing the strategic road will secure the supply route from Khaldiyah and nearby Habbaniyah air base to the combat unites on the edges of Ramadi," Ethawi said.

Fierce battles are underway during the day on several directions leading to Ramadi, in particular, in Ramadi's eastern and northern directions, as IS militants sustained heavy casualties, Ethawi said without elaboration.

For his part, the mayor of Khaldiyah town, Ali Dawood, told Xinhua that the troops are making slow progress in the open lands toward Ramadi because of stubborn resistance from the IS militants and dozens of roadside bombs planted by the extremist militants.

Separately, 11 IS militants and seven civilians were killed and three others wounded in an air strike by an Iraqi helicopter gunship on several districts of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In addition, another helicopter gunship pounded suspected targets inside Ramadi, leaving four militants and a civilian killed and seven wounded, the source said.

In Baghdad, Shiite paramilitary militias mourned three militia leaders of Badr Organization who were killed in Monday's battles near Saqlawiyah area, just north of Fallujah.

Hadi al-Ameri, head of Badr Organization, Vice President Nuri al-Maliki, and Deputy Premier Bahaa al-Araji attended the funeral in Karrada district in central the capital earlier in the day.

Badr Organization, previously known as Badr Brigade, maintains its longtime ties with neighboring Iran, where it was first built during the eight-year Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s.

Ameri's Brigade emerged as powerful militia during the years that followed the U.S.-led invasion to Iraq in 2003 and then turned into a political organization a few years later. Badr Brigade was the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite party headed by Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim.

On Monday, the Iraqi authorities announced the start of a major offensive against IS militants to free key cities and towns in Anbar province from IS militants.

Iraqi security forces and allied Hashd Shaabi paramilitary militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Iraq's largest province of Anbar.

The IS militants have seized most of the province and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back. Endit