Daesh takes Ramadi as Iraqi forces pull out

BAGHDAD — Iraqi government forces staged a desperate retreat from their last bases in Ramadi on Sunday, effectively giving the Daesh group full control of the capital of Iraq’s largest province.

An estimated 500 civilians and security forces have been killed since Daesh launched a fresh offensive in Ramadi late Thursday, an official said, warning that those left behind risked being massacred.

“Anbar operations command has been cleared,” Muhannad Haimour, spokesman and adviser to the provincial governor, told AFP.

Several security officials confirmed the retreat.

Daesh fighters who already controlled most of the Anbar provincial capital used a wave of suicide car bombings late Thursday and Friday to take most of the city.

Army, police, counter-terrorism and local tribal forces had been confined to the operations command base on the northern bank of the Euphrates and the large judicial compound facing it.

“Ramadi has not fallen — there are still people fighting in some neighbourhoods,” Haimour insisted.

The capture of Ramadi by Daesh marks one of the worst setbacks for the government since it launched nationwide operations to reclaim territory lost to the jihadists in June 2014.

Police Colonel Jabbar Al Assafi said government forces had withdrawn from Ramadi city and redeployed to its outskirts.

“The security forces — army and police — have pulled out of Ramadi. They headed to the main highway” west of the city, he told AFP by telephone.

Fear of massacres

An army lieutenant colonel who was among the troops that withdrew from the operations command centre confirmed that Daesh now controlled all of the main security bases in the city.

“Army and police and all forces that were stationed at the Anbar operations command have pulled out, as they have from the nearby police station and judicial compound,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Daesh has just taken full control of all main security bases... They torched the main petrol station at operations command as soon as they took over,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.