07 June 2015

Joint Iraqi forces supported by tribal fighters and People’s Mobilization militiamen today established control over the Tigris Arm area that lies between three Provinces: Anbar, Salahuddin, and Mosul. Security forces have also taken control of the area along the boundary between Anbar and the areas adjacent to Samarra.

Meanwhile Iraqi aircraft and Coalition warplanes carried out a number of strikes on several areas of Tharthar and on to the areas across the Euphrates from Ramadi. Anbar Operations and Police sources are reporting that at least 23 ISIL gunmen were killed by the strikes.

The security situation in Ramadi: following the failed ISIL attack against the areas east of the city, security forces have advanced into areas that had been recently captured by the gunmen to the southwest of Husayba and the eastern outskirts of Ramadi; Iraqi gunships carried out a number of strikes on ISIL positions within the city, killing at least 7 gunmen gathered around an ISIL observation post facing the front lines in Ramadi. The Bu-Farraj and Bu-Ghanim areas were also struck.

Elsewhere in Anbar, Coalition warplanes struck an ISIL position in the area between Haditha and Baiji in Salahuddin Province, killing 3 of the gunmen.

In Fallujah, 3 residents were killed and 9 were wounded by the ongoing indiscriminate bombardment exchanges between security forces around the city’s perimeter and the ISIL gunmen who have been occupying the city for more than one year.

In Garma, 1^st Division sources are confirming that security forces have been able to penetrate 20 km into the township and that they are continuing their operations in the area against the ISIL gunmen holding the town center.

07 August 2014

The Anbar Provincial Council has issued two press statements. In the first, all council members threatened to submit their collective resignation if the government did not stop the random shelling and aerial bombardment of residential areas in Ramadi, Fallujah, Al-Garma, and other cities. 

In the other statement, some council members announced that they had been working on the establishment of armed units that will be subordinated to the Anbar Provincial Council and coordinated with Anbar police and military authorities, respectively. Members of these armed units will be recruited from the ranks of former Iraqi Army officers. The idea is now being discussed in the lobbies of the Anbar Provincial Council in order to receive the necessary authorization from Baghdad and launch the project.  

In Fallujah, 3 people were killed and 7 wounded in the aerial bombardment of the residential areas of Askari, Nazzal, Shurta, Wahda, Kamaliyat, and Sharia Arbaan ("Street 40"). The total figures show that over 600 local civilians have been killed and 1,422 wounded by bombardment since the beginning of military operations in late December 2013.  
In Al-Garma, 2 people were killed and 3 wounded in the aerial bombardment that continued from late last night till this afternoon. 

In Haditha, a security source has announced that Iraq's security forces have managed to retake control over the town of Barwana, which is situated west of the city of Haditha on the Tigris River. 

There has been some information on heavy overnight clashes between security forces and armed groups, with the latter trying to enter Haditha, but a strong response from the security forces and pro-government "Awakening" militias based in Haditha stopped them.  

In Al-Qaim, aerial bombardment and/or shelling of southern sectors of this border city wounded 4 people. 

27 June 2014

There has been a marked advance by the gunmen in taking control of large portions of the western Anbar townships. They are now in control of Al-Qa'im, Ana, Rawa, and the areas around Haditha. They have also seized control of Rutba. They are also moving swiftly toward the perimeter of Al-Baghdadi which is near the Ayn Al-Asad military base which is one of the biggest bases in Iraq. There are also fears of a surprise attack to seize these areas.

Security precautions are underway, such as security forces reinforcements, to the Haditha Dam which is one of the biggest in Iraq, where army forces opened five additional sluice gates on Wednesday, resulting in a rise in water levels of the Euphrates River, the cutting of several smaller bridges, and flooding along the river banks.

There is also concern over the escalation of the security situation in Ramadi, after gunmen took control of the previously quiet Al-Ta'ameem district, and the torching of the Al-Shaheed police station in western Ramadi. The gunmen are now fully in control of those areas, and they are still approaching the Anbar Operations Command compound.

In Fallujah, the General Hospital announced that 5 residents were killed and 7 were wounded as a result of the shelling of several residential districts, Al-Sichir to the north, and Al-Nu'aimiya in southwestern Fallujah.

To the northeast, in Al-Garma, military operations are still ongoing along the Tigris River branch and at the April 28th Bridge that connects Al-Garma to Fallujah.

There is still fear that the gunmen will seize control of most of Anbar, the largest Iraqi governorate (138,000 square kilometers) that borders three neighboring countries and four Iraqi governorates. The fear is that the fall of Anbar would lead to the gunmen's ability to move on into these other governorates and cause trouble in the neighboring countries.

Late last night, Syrian military aircraft launched light attacks on border posts, but we have yet to hear about the results or the casualty count. The local Anbar government has issued statements expressing surprise at the Syrian incursions into Iraqi airspace. The local government is still conducting meetings with tribal sheikhs and leaders, seeking at least an attempt to find a belated solution.

27 May 2014

Fallujah is still under strict security measures, amid substantiated reports of plans to launch an offensive into the city within hours or within the next few days. Meanwhile a military operation to re-establish control over the uncompleted buildings belonging to Fallujah University in the southwestern sector of the city began at dawn yesterday.

Many of the city's residential districts have been shelled, including Al-Nu'aimiya to the south and Al-Sichir to the north. According to the Fallujah General Hospital, 2 residents have been killed and 4 others have been wounded up to noontime today.

Military operations are still underway in the areas around Al-Garma. We have also observed shelling of the southwestern districts of Al-Garma, northeast of Fallujah.

Military operations are also continuing in the desert areas along the Tigris, south of Fallujah. Security forces are saying that they will attempt a six-front assault on Fallujah from all around the city. Meanwhile strict security measures have been imposed on Amiriyat Al-Fallujah in order to prevent the gunmen from moving out of Fallujah into this township.

Anbar police sources have said that the operations in Ramadi are ongoing, and there have been reports from the Anbar Command confirming that security forces have regained control of large portions of Ramadi and that more than 90% of Ramadi's districts have been taken over by local police. Gunmen are now surrounded in a square-shaped area in southeastern Ramadi. We have seen that a few families have returned to the districts that have been liberated in the city that are now relatively calm.

Regarding those displaced from Ramadi and Fallujah after nearly five months of military operations, they are having to endure severe living conditions, especially those who left their homes when fighting first broke out. Their funds and other necessities they took with them are all gone. They are demanding of the local government to provide them with the funds allocated to them, and to provide them with their food aid allocations. They are also calling on all the various aid and relief agencies to provide them with food aid that they so desperately need, given the long duration of the crisis.

During our movements around Ramadi we have observed the collapse of the city's infrastructure; there is huge damage and destruction in most of Ramadi's residential districts. It is being reported that Ramadi's reconstruction will take five years to complete, according to the Anbar Governorate Council which pointed to the huge damage caused by military operations. The local government has called on the central government to begin disbursing the funds allocated for the compensation of Anbari residents.

22 April 2014

In Ramadi, the Iraqi security forces have entered the Al-Hawz district, one of the districts that have been the scene of extensive security operations during the past three days; one of its police stations has been reopened after the district was totally secured on all sides. There have also been scattered clashes in a number of other Ramadi districts, particularly in the city's southern sector.

In Al-Khalidiya, there was an attempt on the life of its police chief, Major Mohammed Mar'ee, via the detonation of 3 explosive devices on the main road through the township; he and three others were injured in the attack.

Within Fallujah, the city is closed off on all sides, now that the security forces have closed the Maftoul crossing; this was the only way into and out of the city.

There has also been indiscriminate shelling of a number of the city's residential districts; first reports indicate that 6 residents have been killed and 7 others injured by the shelling.

Also today, a primary school was blown up by gunmen in the Al-Nu'aimiya district; no reason has been determined, but there was no loss of life in the incident.

In Al-Garma, to the northeast of Fallujah, gunmen today attacked an army unit near the April 28th Bridge that spans the Tigris branch; heavy fighting broke out in the aftermath of the attack. The Al-Garma township is still closed off on all sides, following yesterday's violent clashes and the aerial and artillery targeting of the town. The fighting subsided at around dawn today, leaving the area relatively calm.

In Ramadi, a candidate of the Iraqi Union Coalition in the upcoming parliamentary election, Sa'eed Hamoud Darweesh, was injured when 3 explosive devices were detonated near his home; 3 civilians were injured in the attack. This is the second attempt to assassinate a candidate, and this has raised the fear among other candidates with regard to their campaigning.

Campaigning is virtually non-existent in both Ramadi and Fallujah, while there is some low-key campaigning in the governorate's relatively calm western regions, although there were some skirmishes in Hit yesterday, where a mortar round struck a building close to the Local Council. Nobody was injured but the building sustained some light damage.