8 May 2014

In Fallujah late last night, incursions into the city were attempted on two fronts: one from the Al-Sichir area, and the other from Fallahat to the west of the city. The assaults were confronted by fierce resistance by the gunmen. There was also indiscriminate shelling lasting many hours targeted at a number of residential districts. Initial estimates indicate that 7 people were killed and 17 others were wounded in the shelling.

In Al-Garma northeast of Fallujah there were extremely violent clashes and a long period of random shelling on a number of the town's districts.

In Ramadi, a number of residential districts have been relatively calm, but clashes broke out late last night in the Al-Jumhuri district and the districts along Al-Mustawda'a Street; 4 people were killed and 5 were wounded, mostly civilians, during the clashes.

With regard to the flooding, the Anbar Governorate Council leader, Sabah Karhout, announced that a number of small dams and barrages have been re-opened and this has resulted in lowering the Euphrates water levels and the restoration of quasi-normal conditions in the areas that had been under water.

Regarding the elections, the various political entities have been calling for the conclusion of vote counting within the official time-frame, particularly in the case of the Anbar ballot boxes that were - for the first time - not counted in Anbar but were removed to Baghdad. There is concern about the absence of transparency and about the delay's possible resulting in forgery and vote-rigging. However, everyone is awaiting the announcement of the results within the next few days, so that the governorate can go ahead with changing its political map, if new faces emerge on the scene.