07 July 2014

Many security procedures are in place with the seizure by gunmen of an area on Al-Khalidiya Island in northeastern Ramadi, very close to the Habbaniya military base. Anbar officials here fear that the gunmen, after seizing this area, will be able to gather their forces in order to take this base.

Meanwhile there have been fierce clashes in the attempts to drive the gunmen out of the western parts of Ramadi and its center. Mortar rounds are still targeting the HQ of the 8th Brigade in the city center.

In Fallujah, there was yesterday indiscriminate shelling of a number of the city's districts, including Al-Sichir and Al-Nu'aimiya. Four people have been killed including a surgeon in Al-Garma, about 30 km from Fallujah.

The situation in Anbar's western regions is cautious but relatively calm after the gunmen's taking control of all of western Anbar; they are also in almost total control of Haditha's surroundings, while security forces have been setting up barricades around the Haditha Dam, the biggest dam in Iraq.

The security situation is also preoccupying the residents trying to observe the month of Ramadan, but they are fearful and worried that Anbar will suffer a similar fate as that of Nineveh and other Iraqi governorates. Many displaced persons throughout Anbar are of course suffering from food shortages, given that the local authorities have not been providing them with their needs. They are calling on the local government to provide them with the funds needed to buy their food, especially now during Ramadan.