03 May 2015

Multiple military operations are still underway in various parts of Ramadi: there have been clashes in the Sufiya area east of the city that have spread to the areas toward the city center. The northern and northeastern sectors of the city were reported to be under control, but some ISIL pockets are still operating. Security forces have been able to penetrate into parts of Sufiya – considered to be the eastern access route into Ramadi – where they have killed at least 13 ISIL gunmen.

Meanwhile, more than 30 families have today returned to their homes in some of the city’s central residential districts, amid strict security measures aimed at preventing gunmen from infiltrating alongside the returning families.

Also today, Iraqi army gun ships and coalition warplanes carried out a number of sorties against the city’s southern sector districts. The raids have killed at least 18 ISIL gunmen.

A security source has reported that security forces have liberated the areas around the Ramadi Teaching Hospital and the areas leading to the Hawz district.

In Fallujah, a General Hospital source reported today that 4 residents have been killed and 11 wounded by the indiscriminate bombardment exchanges between security forces surrounding the city and the ISIL gunmen who have been holding the city for more than one year.

In Garma, security forces are still surrounding and blockading the town center but have been unable to penetrate all the way into the center. Security snipers have been able to pick off 3 ISIL gunmen within the town center. Some families have been returning to their homes in the liberated districts of the town.

In Baghdadi, families that have fled from their homes in the town’s eastern districts have called on the central and local governments to urgently intervene, while some children have been succumbing to the rise in temperatures and the lack of food aid.