BAGHDAD-- A day after Islamic State (ISIS) militants captured a number of villages and towns in Anbar province, the Iraqi army said on Monday that they have taken back four districts in eastern Ramadi. A statement from the counterterrorism force said they drove Islamist militants from Siliya, Al-Jamaiyat,Suq, and the Doctors Street near Al-Malab east of the provincial capital. The militants took the towns of Perawan and Baghdadi near Haditha and Hit on Sunday only to be driven out hours later by local tribal forces backed up by the Iraqi security. The Iraqi army reached central Ramadi last week and declared the city from ISIS, but it is believed that militants are still present in parts of the city and its suburbs. Also on Monday the army claimed it had retaken a village in southern Mosul in a coordinated air and ground assault. “Iraqi forces raided the village of Al-Jadey in Gayara town and managed to control it,”Muhammad Ibrahim, head of the security committee of Nineveh province told the media. This would count as the first Iraqi gains near Mosul which has been an ISIS stronghold since June 2014. Ibrahim added that coalition jets pounded ISIS from the air, allowing Iraq troops to engage the militants on the ground.
