Kurdish commander leads Ramadi liberation operation

Islamic State militants are mainly relying on car bombs and exploding houses

Baxtiyar Goran 2015/12/23 20:11

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – Iraqi security forces and anti-terror units supported by US-led coalition warplanes launched a large-scale operation to liberate the besieged city of Ramadi, capital of al-Anbar province, on Tuesday.

The Iraqi Anti-Terror unit is led by a Kurdish commander Major-General Fazil Barwari, who led the charge into civilian neighborhoods in Ramadi amid heavy fighting with IS militants. Barwari, speaking to K24 via phone from Anbar Province said that “anti-terror units liberated three strategic neighborhoods: Aramil, al-Dhubat, and al-Bakir in south Ramadi an area which leads to government offices in the middle of the city.”

Barwari also said that “IS militants are not as strong as before, they could not resist very much in the face of our forces; they are mainly relying on car bombs and exploding houses.”

“IS militants have been surrounded from most sides, and they cannot get arms supplies and food from other areas,” Barwari told K24.

On Sunday, December 20, the Iraqi government gave 72 hours for residents of Ramadi to leave the IS-held city in preparation for the city’s liberation operation.

Barwari said that the international coalition is playing an effective role in terms of providing air support to the forces fighting against IS militants on the ground.

“The Ramadi Popular Mobilization forces and Anbar Police forces [also] play a big role in this operation: when our forces liberate any area or neighborhood, we will hand it over to them,” Barwari added. Iraqi Member of Parliament and Security and Defense Committee member Hamid al-Mutlaq stated to K24, “We do not want Popular Mobilization forces brought to Ramadi from other areas, therefore we have insisted that those who defend the city should be people of Ramadi in order to avoid sectarian conflict.”

The strategically important Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to Islamic State (IS) control on December 17, 2015 when Iraqi troops withdrew from a military base on the west side of the city after a major IS attack on security forces.