Iraqi Forces Advancing Towards Central Ramadi

Iraqi officials say that the operation to retake the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State (ISIS) began on the evening of Monday, December 21, and that special anti-terrorism forces were advancing towards government buildings in the city center on Tuesday. According to Al Jazeera, police officers and Sunni tribal members are also fighting alongside Iraqi soldiers against ISIS. Steven Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, stated that Iraqi forces are advancing towards the city center. On December 20, Iraqi army aircraft dropped leaflets urging residents of Ramadi to leave the city through designated 'safe routes.' The city fell to ISIS in May after five months of fighting. Two weeks ago, Iraqi security and military forces managed to take back a large part of Ramadi from the control of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, is one of Iraq's most important cities and a financial and customs center in the region known as the 'Wilayat al-Furat,' which is partially controlled by ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. U.S. officials estimate that the number of ISIS members in Ramadi was between 600 to 1,000, but most of them were killed in the past two weeks. Currently, the number of Islamic State members in Ramadi is estimated to be between 300 to 400. According to Al Jazeera, 14 Iraqi soldiers and 17 Sunni tribal fighters were killed in a suicide attack in the northwest of Ramadi's city center. The U.S. had requested that the Iraqi government cooperate with Sunni tribal militias trained by the U.S. to retake Ramadi. Shiite militias are not participating in the attack on the Sunni-majority Ramadi. In addition to Ramadi, the Islamic State also occupies the cities of Mosul and Fallujah.