ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi anti-terror forces began an offensive to liberate the town of Hit in western Anbar province early Thursday, an Iraqi official told Rudaw. “On Thursday morning the Hit offensive started and it is expected that the town will be completely liberated in the next few hours,” said Ismail Mahlawi, commander of the Anbar operations command. The town is important due to its strategic location: its liberation will pave the way to opening the main road between the Ayn al-Assad military base and the center of Ramadi, a key city in Anbar which the Iraqi Army declared had been liberated in December. However, ISIS is still reported to have pockets of resistance there. About a fortnight ago, Iraqi forces announced they were stopping fighting for a full-scale offensive to liberate Hit, hoping to give residents time to flee. Eid Amash, a spokesperson for the Anbar provincial council, recently told Rudaw that ISIS has withdrawn from several towns in the province after recent defeats. He said ISIS could not withstand coalition air strikes and advances by the Iraqi army. ISIS seized Ramadi in May last year, in what was considered one of the jihadists’ most important victories. Most of Anbar, the largest province in Iraq, fell to ISIS in January 2014. The Iraqi army and US-led coalition warplanes are continuing to pound ISIS strongholds in the surrounding areas.
