BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces took up positions around Ramadi on Wednesday, seizing two districts after clashes with jihadists.

The Islamic State group also came under pressure in neighbouring Syria, where Kurdish fighters expelled the jihadists from more than a dozen Christian villages in the northeast.

Iraqi forces fought IS militants on the southern outskirts of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province which the jihadists seized on May 17.

They moved into the districts of Taesh and Humeyrah and also entered the neighbouring Anbar university compound, an army colonel on the ground said.

“Iraqi security and Hashed forces took control of both neighbourhoods. They also managed to enter the university but have yet to liberate it,” he said.

Hashed al-Shaabi is an umbrella group for mostly Shia militias and volunteers that the government called in after Ramadi fell to IS.

The recaptured areas are outside the main road circling the city from the south and government forces continued their effort to seal off Ramadi, but an assault to retake it had not started in earnest.

The three-day IS blitz, which saw the city fall after a year and a half of resistance and dealt Baghdad its worst military setback in almost a year, led to a chaotic retreat of the security forces.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had been reluctant to send in the Hashed al-Shaabi.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2015

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