RAMADI, Anbar Province – Fighting between Iraqi joint forces and militants of the so-called Islamic State group has intensified in the Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, a security source told Rudaw. “Iraqi sources are still in heavy fighting against ISIS militias inside the city of Ramadi,” a source from Anbar police told Rudaw. “Iraqi forces have been able to fully recapture the central hospital in the Huzzi neighborhood of Ramadi, but the fight is ongoing in the Soufia neighborhood.” US-led coalition airstrikes and thousands of tribal fighters are reportedly backing the Iraqi army to drive out the extremists from Ramadi, some 115 kilometers from Baghdad. The Anbar Provincial Council announced Sunday the jihadi group controls as much as 20 percent of the city. “ISIS gunmen have booby-trapped almost everything and everywhere, this is the reason why we are slow in our advance,” the police source said. In a statement released Monday, coalition forces announced they “have conducted 12 airstrikes in the past 24 hours on ISIS positions and military bases including towns of Baiji, Fallujah, Kirkuk, Ramadi and Shingal.” According to Anbar officials, at least 80 percent of the Sunni-majority province was under the control of ISIS prior to the Iraqi military campaign that was launched April 8. Most of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, fell to ISIS fighters last year.
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