ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi military’s joint operations command has asked Ramadi residents to leave the city and go to the Hamriya district in anticipation of an operation to liberate the Anbar provincial capital from the Islamic State, the Iraqi defense ministry said in a Monday statement.
It also said more troops would soon be sent to the area.
“The aim of sending more troops to Anbar is to strengthen military measures and put pressure on ISIS militants,” the statement read.
“Iraqi security forces have managed to surround Ramadi from its south, north and western sides to halt the main roads enabling the [ISIS] organization to receive assistance,” Sabah Numan, a military spokesman, said in a Monday press conference. “The situation in Anbar is better and ISIS has started to use other war tactics such as suicide attackers and planting explosives.”
Iraqi security forces, local police, Iraqi federal police, anti-terror forces and at least 10,000 tribal fighters are engaged in the fight against ISIS in Sunni-dominated Anbar province.
ISIS seized Ramadi on May 17, 2015 and has controlled most of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, since its lightning assault across the country last year.
