12 April 2015

Military operations are still underway in the Bu-Farraj areas east of Ramadi where major reinforcements have now been deployed; two regiments of Emergency Police forces have reached the outskirts of the town, but ISIL has committed a number of atrocities in the town center, by executing at least 18 security forces personnel, having taken them by surprise and cornering them inside a residential home. They were shot to death today in the Bu-Farraj center. ISIL gunmen also detonated a booby-trapped vehicle today on the Bu-Farraj Bridge linking the town with Ramadi City. ISIL The gunmen are now fully in control of the areas across the Euphrates, following their seizure of the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, hundreds of families have fled Bu-Farraj to the residential districts within Ramadi where they are sheltering in the schools and mosques under harsh living conditions.

Coalition warplanes and Iraqi air support have carried out strikes throughout today and into this evening, targeting numerous positions in the Bu-Farraj and adjacent areas.

The local Anbar government confirmed today that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered security forces to urgently dispatch military aid to Ramadi, and some military equipment has indeed arrived today, but the various people’s militias have today withdrawn from the Shjariya area toward the Habbaniya Base.

Meanwhile military operations have moved to Ramadi’s southern sector where security forces have succeeded in establishing control of the Hawz and adjacent districts and on  and on towards the northwestern districts. Iraqi air support has been used in attacking targets in western Ramadi.

In Amiriyat al-Fallujah, more than 30 mortar rounds have struck overnight numerous targets in the town’s southwestern sector. Ten civilians have been wounded in the town that is experiencing severe food shortages.

In Fallujah, the situation is relatively calm; some mortar rounds have struck the city but no casualties have been reported by the city’s general hospital.