21 March 2015

In Garma, the joint Anbar and Baghdad security forces have announced that they have surrounded the town center and are awaiting the order to launch their assault. Meanwhile dozens of families have been evacuating the town, but ISIL gunmen have been preventing some of them from leaving in order to use them as human shields.

Since last night and into noontime today security forces and Iraqi air support backed up by coalition airstrikes have attacked a number of ISIL positions in the northern and northeastern areas of the town, killing a total of at least 33 gunmen. Three would-be suicide bombers were also killed before they could detonate their explosive vests in Saqlawiya.

In Fallujah, clashes have intensified in the Sichir area of northeastern Fallujah; security forces are reporting that at least 7 gunmen have been killed there. The ongoing random exchanges of mortar and rocket fire have killed 3 residents and wounded 9. The city is now fully blockaded and the only access route is the highway leading to Baghdad.

In Ramadi, security forces have turned back an attempted advance by ISIL gunmen in the city's southern sector. The forces have reported that at least 8 gunmen in the fighting. Overnight, coalition warplanes have carried out a number of sorties against the Ta'meem area of western Ramadi.

In Baghdadi, security forces have killed 13 ISIL gunmen in a village on the southwestern outskirts of the town.