Baghdad: Clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh terrorists pressing their offensive for Ramadi, the capital of western Al Anbar province, has forced more than 2,000 families to flee from their homes in the area, an Iraqi official said on Thursday.
The terrorists’ push on Ramadi, launched on Wednesday when Daesh captured three villages on the city’s eastern outskirts, has become the most significant threat so far to the provincial capital of Al Anbar.
It is seen as an attempt by Daesh to stage a counteroffensive after suffering a major blow earlier this month when Iraqi troops routed the group from Tikrit, Saddam Hussain’s hometown.
Sattar Nowruz, from the Ministry of Migration and Displaced, said that the over 2,000 families that fled Ramadi were in a “difficult situation” and have settled in southern and western Baghdad suburbs.
Tents, food and other aid are being sent to them, he said. The ministry is also assessing the situation with the provincial government in order “to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help,” Nowruz added.
On Thursday, sporadic clashes were still under way, according to security officials in Ramadi. The centre of the city has been firmly in the hands of Baghdad government forces, though some of the far suburbs and outskirts had fallen to Daesh, which last year captured large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, along with about a third of neighbouring Syria. That blitz stunned the Baghdad government and pushed the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.
US-led coalition air strikes were backing the Iraqi troops in Ramadi on Thursday and were targeting the three villages — Sjariyah, Al Bu Ghanim and Soufiya — captured on Wednesday by the extremists, the officials added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.
They described Ramadi as a ghost town with empty streets and closed shops after most of the residents had deserted it.
Ramadi and the city of Fallujah to the east, roughly half-way on the road to Baghdad, were major Al Qaida strongholds during the eight-year US-led invasion, and fighting in Al Anbar was especially costly for Americans troops. Many of the militants were eventually forced to flee Iraq or go into hiding in the latter years.
In January 2014, Fallujah was the first major Iraqi city seized by Daesh.
On a visit to Washington, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi on Wednesday made no mention of the events in Ramadi, speaking instead optimistically about gaining tribal fighter participation in the government’s battle against Daesh and saying that about 5,000 tribal fighters in Al Anbar had signed up and received light weapons.
