17 July 2014

The most prominent development in Ramadi during the last three days has been the gunmen's deployment into the city's western and southern sectors. The gunmen's movements have resulted in intermittent clashes and have forced the districts' residents to once again move out towards Hit and Al-Baghdadi. As a result, the local government has once again called for tribal volunteers to join army and police forces in order to bolster the security forces in their efforts at thwarting the gunmen's advances.

The 8th Brigade HQ has again been hit by mortar and artillery fire and intermittent clashes have been taking place throughout the night.

In Fallujah, 9 residents were killed and 27 others were wounded in yesterday's fierce shelling of numerous districts within the city.

Al-Garma has also been subjected to shelling and rocket-propelled grenade fire, resulting in the death of 2 residents with 7 others wounded. The town is still controlled by gunmen, while security forces are operating outside the town's perimeter. Security sources are claiming that the operations are being targeted at groups of gunmen.

In western Anbar gunmen are still controlling the main towns as well as the crossing points at both the Syrian and Jordanian borders. Iraqi warplanes have attacked a number of positions in the region, saying that the they are targeting the gunmen groups.

There has been an attempted assault on Haditha which is a fortified stronghold of the security and tribal forces and is the location of the Haditha Dam. Security forces there have been reinforced out of concerns that the gunmen would try to attack the town.

Flyers have been distributed in Hit and Al-Baghdadi warning residents against siding with the security forces and fixing the end of Ramadan as the final deadline for their 'repentance' and their embracing the 'Islamic State' after resigning their government jobs.