ISIS takes Ramadi as reinforcements surge into city

The key Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to ISIS on Sunday after government security forces pulled out of a military base on the west side of the city, the mayor and a high-ranking security official said.

The ISIS advances came after militants detonated a series of morning car bomb blasts, Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisy and a high-ranking Iraqi security official said. The explosions forced Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters to retreat to the city's east, they said.

Clashes have raged in the beleaguered capital of Anbar province for months as Iraqi and allied forces battle ISIS militants for control of the strategically located city, which is just 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad.

Ramadi, the largest city in western Iraq, is just a few miles from an Iraqi army headquarters that ISIS blew up in March.

ISIS took over parts of the city in the first half of last year, placing it at the heart of a deadly tug of war ever since.
Officials estimate that more than 500 people have been killed in the most recent clashes, said Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the Anbar governor. A new wave of civilians was fleeing the city Sunday, heading toward safer areas such as Baghdad; some of them were trapped on a bridge out of the city, he said, as fighting raged around them.
And officials said Sunday that the fight for Ramadi is far from over.
Even as ISIS took control, pockets of resistance remain inside the city, Haimour said.



CNN