The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.
Islamic State forces launched a fierce assault of car bombs on Iraqi government security facilities overnight, and by late afternoon, their black flag was flying over the governor’s office. Security forces appeared to be in full flight as militants consolidated control over the area and prevented anyone from leaving the area.
“Daash is now in full control of the central government compound of Ramadi and battles are now raging in the last Ramadi areas held by government troops,” said a security official inside one of the last remaining pockets of government resistance, using the common Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. He asked not to be identified for security reasons and said he expected either to be forced to flee or be captured by the militants in the coming hours.
“Daash has surrounded the Anbar Operations Center and heavy fighting is taking place near the headquarters of operations,” said the official, who was inside the operations center. Gunfire and explosions could be heard over his phone line.
Local residents and security officials confirmed that not only was the Islamic State blocking residents from leaving the area, but had been going house to house gathering mobile phones of residents and had executed at least 50 pro-government tribal fighters as well as several top tribal leaders as they took control of the area.
Another police officer, who asked not be named because he expected to be captured shortly, said that residents who’d fled their homes “are begging anyone to save them after the Iraqi government abandoned them because of fears that the Daash will massacre their sons.”
The catastrophe for the Iraqi security forces began late Thursday night when a wave of suicide car bombs – at least six, according to witnesses – began to strike key fortifications around the center of the government compound, which had been holding out under occasional siege since January 2014 when the Islamic State and a host of anti-government Sunni Muslim tribes took control of much of the surrounding countryside.
One police officer told McClatchy that the Islamic State used armored bulldozers to move blast walls and other fortifications to clear the way for the wave of suicide bombers in vehicles, who then decimated much of the city center’s defenses.
Security officials, while begging Baghdad commanders for immediate reinforcements, air support and help with evacuation, said they were moving as many of their routed troops and other civilians from pro government tribes to a stadium on the outskirts of town in the hopes of evacuating them by air. The stadium, to the south of the city, was being protected by the Iraqi Army’s elite Golden Brigade, one of the last combat effective units available to the government in the area, but some local residents from tribes not directly affiliated with the government said the soldiers were preventing many civilians from reaching the last safe haven because of fears that Islamic State militants were hiding among them.
Movement in Ramadi as well as suburban areas around both Ramadi and Fallujah has become increasingly difficult as the Islamic State appeared intent on preventing townspeople from fleeing their advance, an echo of Thursday’s audio tape by the Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who had said it was obligatory for all Muslims to remain behind and live in the new caliphate.
“If Ramadi completely falls and the Islamic State prevents civilians from leaving, [this is] a fulfillment of the essence of [Baghdadi’s] words yesterday,” said Aymenn al Tamimi, an analyst of jihadist groups for the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum. “[Baghdadi] wanted a [military] breakthrough and this is it.”
Special correspondents based in Ramadi, Fallujah and Irbil, whose identities are being withheld for security reasons, contributed to this report.
Prothero is a McClatchy special correspondent. Email: mprothero@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @mitchprothero
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The Islamic State on Friday took control of the provincial government center of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, in a major defeat for the Iraqi government.Islamic State forces launched a fierce assault of car bombs on Iraqi government security facilities overnight, and by late a...
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