07 August 2014

The Anbar Provincial Council has issued two press statements. In the first, all council members threatened to submit their collective resignation if the government did not stop the random shelling and aerial bombardment of residential areas in Ramadi, Fallujah, Al-Garma, and other cities. 

In the other statement, some council members announced that they had been working on the establishment of armed units that will be subordinated to the Anbar Provincial Council and coordinated with Anbar police and military authorities, respectively. Members of these armed units will be recruited from the ranks of former Iraqi Army officers. The idea is now being discussed in the lobbies of the Anbar Provincial Council in order to receive the necessary authorization from Baghdad and launch the project.  

In Fallujah, 3 people were killed and 7 wounded in the aerial bombardment of the residential areas of Askari, Nazzal, Shurta, Wahda, Kamaliyat, and Sharia Arbaan ("Street 40"). The total figures show that over 600 local civilians have been killed and 1,422 wounded by bombardment since the beginning of military operations in late December 2013.  
In Al-Garma, 2 people were killed and 3 wounded in the aerial bombardment that continued from late last night till this afternoon. 

In Haditha, a security source has announced that Iraq's security forces have managed to retake control over the town of Barwana, which is situated west of the city of Haditha on the Tigris River. 

There has been some information on heavy overnight clashes between security forces and armed groups, with the latter trying to enter Haditha, but a strong response from the security forces and pro-government "Awakening" militias based in Haditha stopped them.  

In Al-Qaim, aerial bombardment and/or shelling of southern sectors of this border city wounded 4 people.