With Iraqi troops advancing, IS holds civilians captive in stronghold

Army jets drop leaflets telling Ramadi residents to leave their homes within 72 hours, showing safe routes of escape

By ToI Staff 21 December 2015, 10:18 pm

Edit

A representative of Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader talks with displaced Iraqi children who fled Ramadi, after it was seized by the Islamic State, at a makeshift camp for internally displaced persons in Ameriyat al-Fallujah, June 6, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

The Islamic State is barring civilians from leaving its stronghold in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, as the country’s military gears up to attack and retake the key location seized by the Islamist militants in May, Reuters reported Monday.

“There are families that managed to escape the gangs of Daesh,” Iraqi defense ministry spokesman Naseer Nuri told Reuters, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

“There is intelligence information from inside the city that they are preventing families from leaving; they plan to use them as human shields.”

Iraqi state TV quoted the country’s chief of staff as saying Monday that the attack on Ramadi would begin “in the coming hours.”

Leaflets dropped by Iraqi military planes Sunday called on residents — estimated at anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 — to leave their homes within 72 hours. The leaflets showed safe routes of escape and advised residents to take identification documents with them.

IS overran large parts of Iraq in June 2014, including major territory in Anbar, which stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad.

The Iraqi government and IS battled over Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, from October 2014 until May, when IS forces blitzed them out with dozens of massive suicide truck bombs. Since then, the Iraqi military and militias backed by US-led airstrikes have spent months fighting to defend the area around the city.

There are currently 3,500 US troops in Iraq in a training, advisory and assistance role, who have been helping the Iraqi army prepare for the battle to retake Ramadi.