News ISIS Takes Control Of Ramadi, Baghdad Next?

Iraqi forces, civilians flee as ISIS gains control of Ramadi, US official says


Fear of a possible Islamic State bloodbath sent thousands of Iraqis fleeing Ramadi on Monday after government forces abandoned the city -- just 80 miles from Baghdad -- in what one U.S. military official conceded was a fight "pretty much over."

Some 8,000 people have fled the embattled streets of Ramadi as thousands of ISIS fighters seized the key Iraqi city, killing some 500, and reportedly going door-to-door looking for Iraqi government troops and police to run out of town.

“There have been executions in the streets of Ramadi," Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial government, told NBC News Monday. ISIS extremists used vehicles, bulldozers rigged with explosives and suicide bombers to overrun the city after weeks of battles in the street.

"The situation in the city is absolutely terrible," Haimour said. "The city is in very bad shape."

The fight for Ramadi is “pretty much over for now,” a U.S. military official told Fox News, after ISIS overran the beleaguered Iraqi Army to take control of the city Sunday.

Iraqi security forces abandoned their Anbar Operations Center in Ramadi overnight, leaving the city almost completely in ISIS control, according to the U.S. official, who has seen the latest intelligence reports from Ramadi.

Although there were a large number of Iraqi security forces occupying Ramadi, most troops fled after ISIS fighters began their assault on the city center Sunday, leaving behind Humvees and armored vehicles supplied by the U.S. military, a separate senior U.S. military official told Fox News.

"The Iraqi security forces were pushed out by a much smaller [ISIS] force," the official said.

The takeover followed a three-day siege that began with a wave of ISIS car bombs and which dealt a devastating blow to the Baghdad government and the U.S. forces providing logistical support. On Monday, Shia militias converged on the city, some 70 miles west of the capital, in a bid to retake it.

Ramadi's streets were deserted Monday, with few people venturing out of their homes to look for food, according to two residents reached by telephone.

The militants, meanwhile, were storming the homes of policemen and pro-government tribesmen, particularly those from the large Al Bu Alwan tribe, of whom they detained about 30, the residents said. The militants went door-to-door with lists of alleged pro-government collaborators. Homes and stores owned by a pro-government Sunni militia known as the Sahwa were looted or torched.

The residents spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by the militants.

 

The speed with which they have recruited, trained and equipped an effective fighting force is pretty scary. Especially since their soldiers all belong to the "religion of peace."

 

Thanks, didn't know it posted before the browser froze.

 

Safari, I'm on an iPad, the wifi got cut off momentarily and the browser froze.