18 January 2015

Anbar Operations Command and the SWAT Command announced today from Baghdadi that the road between Baghdadi and Haditha township has been secured following the liberation of three of the area's villages. They also announced that 17 ISIL gunmen were killed in the fighting.

On the opposite side of Haditha, security forces have repelled a surprise attack by the gunmen trying to infiltrate into Haditha. Seven of the gunmen were killed, including 3 non-Iraqi Arabs.

Coalition warplanes have launched a number of strikes, ranging westward from Haditha to Ana, Rawa, and the border township of Al-Qaim on the Iraqi-Syrian-Jordanian border. The strikes targeted a number of ISIL positions, killing dozens of the gunmen, according to security sources.

In Ramadi, a number of ISIL mortar rounds have struck several areas of western and central  Ramadi, killing 2 residents and wounding 17, mostly women and children.

In southwestern Ramadi, fierce clashes have resumed in the sector's residential districts. The Anbar Police Commanded reports that gunmen have been killed in the fighting.

An official statement today has declared that the Shujaria area has been completely cleared and all mines and explosive devices have been disarmed and removed from the roads and buildings in the area.

In Fallujah, a General Hospital source has confirmed that 2 residents have been killed and 25 wounded following the resumption of clashes and indiscriminate bombardments. Clashes also resumed today in Garma's industrial zone and the its southern sector at the junction of roads leading to Fallujah and to Salahuddin Province.

The tribal elder members of the Anbar delegation in Washington DC have expressed their satisfaction over the visit aimed at reaching a strategic agreement that would enable the U.S.-led coalition to fight ISIL in Anbar and to form and equip a tribal fighting entity to combat ISIL in Iraq's western region, particularly in Anbar.