20 January 2015

At dawn this morning, ISIL gunmen launched an attack on the Al-Bu-Risha area northeast of Ramadi, targeting the buildings and reception facilities belonging to Sheikh Ahmed Abu-Risha, head of the Iraqi Awakenings Council. A number of booby-trapped vehicles were used in the assault on the complex. Security and police sources are reporting that the ensuing clashes resulted in killing at least 7 of the gunmen. Other sources have reported that ISIL gunmen have seized a number of buildings in the Abu Risha compound.

To the west, ISIL gunmen attacked border areas around the Al-Waleed crossing, intending to overrun a number of army posts using booby-trapped vehicles, but security forces supported by coalition warplanes succeeded in repelling the attacks, killing a number of the gunmen and destroying a number of their vehicles.

In Al-Nukhaib in southwestern Anbar, ISIL gunmen tried to seize control of an army facility belonging to the Anbar Operations Command, but the attempt was foiled. Meanwhile, the Anbar Police commander, Gen. Kadhum Al-Fahdawi, announced that army forces supported by local police and tribal forces have taken control of the Zdariyah area in the western sector of Haditha township.

Fierce clashes and coalition airstrikes are underway in Garma, northeast of Fallujah. Anbar Operations sources are confirming that at least 37 ISIL gunmen have been killed in the action.  Meanwhile, unidentified mortar fire has struck residential districts in Garma, killing 7 residents, including 3 women, and wounding at least 23 others.

In Fallujah, a General Hospital source has announced that 3 residents have been killed and 7 wounded by the continuing indiscriminate bombardment exchanges between ISIL forces within the city and security forces around its perimeter.

In Ramadi, to-and-fro battles are continuing in the southwestern and southern sectors of the city, with ISIL gunmen attempting to re-enter the Hawz and its surrounding districts. The attempt has been foiled and 4 ISIL snipers, including a non-Iraqi Arab, were killed. ISIL forces replied with mortar fire aimed at the southern residential districts. 4 residents were wounding amid severe structural damage.