27 April 2014

There has been an escalation of the security situation in Ramadi with an increase in violence in the city's southern districts.

A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the Anbar Emergency Regiment, killing five people and injuring seven others.

A gunmen wearing a suicide vest and driving an explosives-loaded car blew himself up along with his car on the Al-Ghadhaf Bridge connecting the governorates of Anbar and Karbala between Al-Nukhaib township and Ramadi in the southwest of Ramadi.

Polling stations are still being targeted, particularly those set up in schools. In Ramadi, the detonation of a car bomb targeted one such polling station, but nobody was hurt although the building suffered extensive damage.

In Fallujah today, 16 people were wounded by the indiscriminate shelling that began Saturday night and continued through this afternoon. The casualties include three killed and 13 wounded, in the shelling of several of the city's residential districts.

There has been heavy shelling targeted at Al-Garma and at areas around Al-Ru'oud south of Al-Garma.

Election campaign publicity is still relatively low-level in Anbar's western towns because of the threats by gunmen against the various candidates if they continue campaigning. There is concern that election rigging will be used, given the instability caused by the security situation.