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Police chief says Ramadi to be cleared from IS "within days"

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The police chief of Iraq's western province of Anbar said Thursday that liberation of the provincial capital city of Ramadi will be cleared from Islamic State (IS) militants "within days", while air strikes and bomb attacks killed a total of 13 people and wounded 31 others.

"The security forces recaptured parts of the areas of Ta'mim, Warrar and Albu Farraj on the edges of Ramadi and liberation of the city will be very soon, within days," Major General Hadi Rziyj told reporters at a press conference.

"The resistance of Daesh (IS group) became very weak and they don't have more than car bombs, improvised explosive devices and some suicide bombers, while the security forces have the means to deal with such threats," Rziyj said.

Rziyj's comments came as the Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, recaptured several areas at the edges of the IS-held city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, as part of their offensive to surround the city and clear it later from IS militants.

Meanwhile, six IS militants were killed and 14 others wounded in air strike by Iraq warplanes on houses used by the extremist militants in Sicher area in northeast of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Separately, U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out air strikes on an IS base in the town of Qaim near the Iraqi border with Syria, leaving four militants and a civilian killed and 12 others wounded, including five civilians, the source said citing intelligence report.

Also in the province, two soldiers were killed and five others wounded in mortar and rocket barrage by IS militants on their base near the IS-held town of Garma, some 40 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

The military operations in Anbar province came as Iraqi security forces and allied militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Iraq's largest province from the extremist IS militants, which seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. Endit