26 June 2014

The most significant development in Ramadi today has been the penetration of the gunmen toward the Anbar Operations Command in western Ramadi. The gunmen have now surrounded the Command and are about 1.5 kilometers away, having seized the Al-Shaheed police station in Al-Ta'ameem District. They are now on their way to capturing the most important military site in Anbar Governorate.

Meanwhile, army forces have opened five sluice gates at the Haditha Dam in western Anbar. The resulting rise in water levels has breached the Alous pontoon bridge, and has flooded a large number of residential homes along the banks of the Euphrates River. There is growing concern over the likelihood of of a major clash between the gunmen surrounding Haditha and the joint Awakenings and security forces that are still holding the Haditha Dam.

Syrian regime military aircraft have today attacked areas along the border in the boundary region between Nineveh and Anbar governorates.

In Fallujah, a medical source has announced that 3 citizens have been killed and 2 others wounded in the fierce clashes in the Al-Hayakil district of southern Fallujah and in the renewed shelling of the central and northern districts of the city.

There are also reports that the head of the Anbar Council's security Committee, Ahmed Hameed Sharqi has disappeared along with his family. This is in line with the departure of Anbar officials to Kurdistan or out of Iraq, fearing the imminent exacerbation of the situation in Anbar. The situation here is indeed frightening following the gunmen's successes in the rapid capture of the governorate's vital locations and facilities.