ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As Iraqi forces are locked in an intense battle with the Islamic State in the city of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial council says the jihadi group now controls as much as 20 percent of the city. Falih Issawi, deputy president of the provincial council, made the 20 percent claim Sunday in comments to Al-Mada newspaper. “Due to a lack of ammunition and weapons, we did not manage to stop the group’s advance,” Issawi said. Abdulmajid Fahdawi, an Anbar tribal leader, said a military force consisting of two divisions of the Golden Force units of the Iraqi army and Iraqi police on Saturday arrived at Hamdaniyah military base south of Ramadi to halt further ISIS advances. “A Hashd al-Shaabi force also arrived at Hamdaniyah military base to fight alongside the Iraqi joint forces,” he said referring to volunteer Shiite militias also know as Popular Mobilizations Units, or PMUs. The UN has said 90,000 civilians have fled Anbar province due to the current fighting there. Several sources in Anbar said many of the displaced families have fled on foot to Baghdad.
