25 April 2015

Today, ISIL gunmen have occupied the Tharthar Barrage in southern Anbar. ISIL launched an attack on a military barracks manned by the Iraqi army’s 1^st Division, and then took control of the other barracks after bombarding the positions.  Fierce fighting ensued, but the security forces have been calling for more than a week for military reinforcement and supplies to these barracks, but no aid has been forthcoming. Security sources have reported that at least 141 army and security personnel were killed in the fighting, among them the 1^st Division’s commanding officer, Brig.-Gen. Hassan Abbas, and a regimental commander. ISIL gunmen have taken control of all the areas between al-Thathar and Fallujah. Meanwhile Iraqi gun ships and coalition warplanes have struck a number of positions in these areas and security forces have announced that at least 30 gunmen were killed.

At the Treybil border crossing on the Iraqi-Jordanian border, ISIL gunmen using 3 explosives-laden vehicles have killed at least 5 security personnel were killed and at least 11 were wounded in the attack.

Meanwhile, military operations are at their fiercest in the eastern Ramadi Sufiya area where security forces have penetrated into the town byt ISIL gunmen have counterattacked.

In the southern sector of Ramadi, security forces have taken control of the Hawz district and a number of other districts in southern Ramadi. Security forces have succeeded in penetrating into the Bu-Farraj area north of Ramadi where broad military operations are still underway. Iraqi gun ships and coalition warplanes have carried out numerous strikes on the areas along Ramadi’s perimeter.

26 April 2014

At dawn this morning gunmen blew up a school being used as a polling station in the Al-Karabla in Al-Qa'im township in western Anbar on the border with Syria. The school was completely demolished but there were no casualties.

In Ramadi, there are some relatively low-level clashes still going on; the various hot-zone districts are relatively calm, although some gunfire could be heard during the night.

In Fallujah, a large number of families - and some from Ramadi - have migrated towards Kurdistan, firstly as a result of the flooding of the city's southern sector, and also as a result of the continuing indiscriminate shelling that has today caused the death of one resident and injured 6 others.

A pedestrian crossing point has been opened after the flooding of vast areas of Fallujah.

Al-Garma is completely closed off by the army with nobody able to get into or out of the town which has been the target of intensive shelling during the past three days.

Also today, the Anbar Governorate Council has disbursed some of the funds allocated as compensation to the city of Ramadi. The disbursement amounts to 10 million Dinars (about $8400) to each residential home. The amount is insufficient, but the local government has said that it represents the first partial payment of the compensation for those whose homes have been destroyed.

Sheikh Ali Hatem, who had led the Military Council of Anbar Tribal Revolutionaries, left the country yesterday (Friday) by way of the Treybeel crossing into Jordan on his way to Amman. This has raised questions: he is wanted by the government but left the Governorate and the country using his Iraqi passport through the official border crossing at Treybeel. Some are saying that negotiations are about to take place in Amman, and that he secured permission by the central government to leave. Others are saying that he was given a large sum of money that secured his exit to Amman.

Regarding the upcoming elections, there are differences of opinion among the Anbar residents about whether to take part or not. Obviously, there are numerous hindrances, particularly in Ramadi and Fallujah that can only undertake a limited partial balloting.