ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi Cabinet has announced that on Monday 70 ISIS militants were killed in battlefield areas in Anbar province.
“Security forces from Anbar operations units managed to repel an ISIS assault in the area of Albu Issa close to Ramadi on Monday killing 70 militants,” said the Cabinet in a statement.
It also claimed that 40 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid by retreating ISIS militants in the area were defused, and US-led coalition warplanes with the help of Iraqi combat forces carried out seven airstrikes, destroying a car bomb equipped with explosives in the process.
“Police forces along with tribal fighters conducted a military campaign in the area of Jazira-Khalidiya and Hassibiya near Ramadi, defusing a car bomb as well as a booby-trapped home, killed eight militants, destroyed two weapons depots and another six IEDs,” the statement added.
This announcement comes as the government has claimed once again it is preparing to retake the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi.
Iraq’s Ministry of Defense announced on August 13 that it will launch a “second phase” of military campaigns to liberate the city after a previous campaign was halted in mid-June. Ramadi was seized in March after Iraqi forces withdrew in the face of a numerically smaller ISIS force.
Iraqi police are claiming to have recaptured the city’s outskirts, and Iraqi forces have also arrived at Anbar University just a few kilometers from the center of Ramadi. However, the advance has been slow because of explosives and booby traps planted in the newly-liberated areas, the government has said.
According to information obtained from residents, people living close to Ramadi’s city gate have evacuated their homes in anticipation of upcoming attacks, according to a video report by Rudaw on Sunday.
“We concluded the first phase of the operation with a security siege on the city and ISIS has no power to move,” Defense Minister Khalid Obaidi said in a Thursday statement.
“The first phase of military campaigns to liberate Ramadi started in May with the cooperation of security forces, Sunni tribes, the Hashd al-Shaabi and the US-led coalition. It was successfully concluded,” he added.
Obaidi said the second phase of liberation is underway, made the big claim Iraqi security forces are in control of Anbar and ISIS has lost its once-formidable military power. Most of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, fell to ISIS fighters last year.
Farhan Mohammed, a member of the Anbar provincial council, told Rudaw in June that there was little cooperation between the disparate Iraqi forces. He said the delay in the campaign was to allow for US military advisers to train Sunni tribal fighters and Iraqi forces.
ISIS seized Ramadi on May 17 in what is considered one of the jihadists’ most important victories and most of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, fell to ISIS fighters.
