24 March 2015

In eastern Anbar, security forces today repelled three ISIL suicide attacks on areas east of the city: areas attached to Garma township and at the ‘Japanese Bridge’, using 5 armored wheel loaders driven by suicide gunmen and 3 others wearing explosive vests. The first attack targeted the 1^st Regiment of the 1^st Rapid Response Division HQ in Garma; the second targeted units of the 1^st Division deployed at the ‘Japanese Bridge’ east of Ramadi; the third targeted units of the same Division deployed between Khalidiya and Garma. Latest reports indicate that 15 1^st Division personnel were killed or wounded in these attacks. Meanwhile all the vehicles used in the attacks were destroyed and all of the suicide gunmen were killed. Iraqi air support has also carried out a number of strikes against ISIL targets in the areas between Garma and Fallujah.

Also today, security forces repelled an attack on Amiriyat al-Fallujah. The township’s Police Commander, Lt. Col. Aref al-Janabi, has announced that security forces have killed at least 15 gunmen in the clashes.

In Fallujah, a General Hospital source has reported that 2 residents have been killed and 7 wounded by the ongoing random bombardment exchanges between security forces around the city’s perimeter and the ISIL gunmen holding the city.

In Ramadi, the southern sector has been the scene of intermittent clashes, while the central and northern sectors have been calm today. A military operation is underway in the rural areas across the Euphrates in easternmost Ramadi.