Bombs, snipers slow Iraq forces

Iraqi forces dodged sniper fire, car bombs, roadside bombs and booby traps as they battled Friday to root out jihadist fighters hunkered down in a strategic compound in central Ramadi.

Elite forces from the counter-terrorism service (CTS) faced limited resistance when they punched into central Ramadi four days earlier, in a final push to retake the city they lost to the ISIS group in May. Jihadist fighters concentrated their defence around the main government complex in the Hoz neighbourhood and now Iraqi forces are struggling to break in.

“We are facing many obstacles, mostly snipers and car bombs,” said one CTS fighter, 1st Lieutenant Bashar Hussein, from a position in Dhubbat neighbourhood, just south of Hoz. The terrain allows a small number of determined men to hold off a larger force. Iraqi soldiers were around 500 metres (yards) away from the compound on Thursday and had only inched a little closer by Friday.

“Daesh (IS) resistance got stiffer as Iraqi forces moved closer to the government compound,” said an Army brigadier general. “Our forces are now just over 300 metres away from those buildings,” he said. The number of ISIS fighters still holding out in the city was estimated at fewer than 400, with reports of some retreating from the front by using civilians as human shields.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s armed forces will move to retake the major northern city of Mosul from ISIS once they capture the western city of Ramadi, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Friday.

Capturing Mosul would deprive the group of its biggest population centre in both Iraq and Syria, abolishing the state structure of ISIS in Iraq. “The liberation of dear Mosul will be achieved with the cooperation and unity of all Iraqis after the victory in Ramadi,” Mr Abadi said.