05 August 2014

Between yesterday evening and this afternoon, numerous residential districts in Fallujah were shelled/bombarded; an initial casualty count shows that 6 residents were killed and 13 were wounded.

In Al-Garma, intermittent clashes around the town's periphery and the bombardment of its residential districts have killed 2 residents and wounded 4.

In Ramadi, the military operation against the city's western districts has continued, but we do not yet have any updated casualty figures.

In Haditha, the gunmen, after failing yesterday to penetrate into the town, have now taken control of the town's outlying villages and rural areas.

The main western townships that encompass vast portions of Anbar governorate are all still under the control of the gunmen.

An important development is that those displaced from Fallujah, Ramadi, and other eastern Anbar regions made their way originally to the western townships that were still under government control. But now the security situation in those townships has become similar to the situation in their original hometowns, prompting some to look for other safe havens; meanwhile some Ramadi and Fallujah residents have been returning to their homes regardless of the shelling and military operations. Most of them do not have the financial means that would allow them to seek refuge outside the governorate, in Kurdistan or elsewhere. Today we have observed numerous families taking refuge in trucks parked in Hit and Al-Baghdadi that are still relatively calm. Others have set themselves up in parking areas and in other unsuitable locations where they are experiencing extremely difficult conditions. No food and water aid or relief has found its way to them.