"Corrupt [Iraqi security forces] commanders in Ramadi took bribes in exchange for battle plans and logistical information." The fleeing Iraqi army units left behind millions of dollars of American-made military gear, including "dozens" of tracked vehicles, among them about half a dozen M1 Abrams tanks and about 100 armored Humvees and other vehicles, U.S. military officials said. - Inside the Battle for Ramadi | Iraqi army 'abandoned tanks, artillery and Humvees' to Isil in fall of Ramadi | Isis sleeper cells and double agents helped capture of Ramadi | ISIS Advances Into Iraq's Ramadi Amid Wave Of Suicide Attacks | "Isis also released some 70 men and 31 women from Ramadi prison who had been shot in the feet to prevent them escaping by their jailers before they fled. Sunni Arabs in the city had long complained that local police arrested people arbitrarily, tortured them and would only release them after payment of a bribe. Using loudspeakers, Isis told relatives to come to the main mosque to pick up the prisoners." - Isis seizes Ramadi
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The loss of Ramadi has discredited the Baghdad government and US policy of relying on the regular army backed by US air strikes to hold back and ultimately defeat Isis.
The first contingents of Shia paramilitaries from the al-Hashd al-Shaabi (“Popular Mobilisation”) are assembling at Habbaniyah military base 20 miles east of Ramadi. In total the paramilitaries are reported to number between 100,000 and 120,000 men, though only a small number of these are in Anbar province – of which Ramadi is the capital – while the regular army has only a maximum of five brigades or 15,000 soldiers who are effective in combat.
Several of its best units are exhausted or suffered heavy losses in fighting over the last 18 months with many desertions. An Iraqi government statement said that “severe punishment will be done on those who failed to carry out their duties during the Ramadi battle”. Other units are scattered and 28 soldiers were rescued by government helicopters, the men hugging and kissing each other afterwards in their joy at having survived and in the knowledge that Isis seldom takes prisoners.
Left with no option but to deploy the militiamen, the government and the US would like a swift counter-attack to retake Ramadi. But their first priority may be to defend Baghdad and cities like Samara and Kerbala. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government’s notoriously corrupt and incompetent military administration will struggle to feed and supply with ammunition a large number of men in the front line. On the other hand, it will prove difficult for Isis to advance further in the face of sustained American air attack.
Isis has moved swiftly to secure control and win popularity among the minority of people who have not fled Ramadi by bulldozing concrete blast walls or using cranes to remove them and other fortifications erected by the Iraqi army. These were unpopular because they made it difficult to move around the city.
Isis also released some 70 men and 31 women from Ramadi prison who had been shot in the feet to prevent them escaping by their jailers before they fled. Sunni Arabs in the city had long complained that local police arrested people arbitrarily, tortured them and would only release them after payment of a bribe. Using loudspeakers, Isis told relatives to come to the main mosque to pick up the prisoners.
The militant jihadis have raised their black flag over all public buildings and promised that food, doctors and medicine will be available. But they have also reportedly killed hundreds of members of the local security forces and tribesmen who fought against them.
An Islamic State fighter in the city of Ramadi (EPA) They have promised to introduce sharia and are already enforcing their extreme conservative social mores. Jasim Mohammed, 49, who owns a women’s clothing shop, told Reuters that an Isis member had told him he must now sell only traditional Islamic garments. “I had to remove the mannequins and replace them with other means of displaying the clothes,” he said. “He told me that I shouldn’t sell underwear because it’s forbidden.”
Even so, the majority of people in Ramadi, which once had a population of 600,000, are fleeing or fled months ago when the struggle for the city started early in 2014. But they are finding it difficult to secure a safe refuge because the security forces in Baghdad 70 miles to the west suspect refugees of being secret members of Isis. They are kept waiting in cars or on foot in daytime temperatures expected to reach 44C. Four people are reported to have died of heat stroke.
The Isis offensives of 2014 and 2015, which either brought Sunnis under the control of the jihadi militants or displaced them from their homes, may turn out to be a long-term disaster for the six million Sunni Arabs of Iraq.
Annas, a journalist from Ramadi whose family has fled, told The Independent: “We Sunni in Iraq are going to end up being forced out of our homes like the Palestinians.” He said it was difficult for a Sunni like him to live in Baghdad which “had become a city of militias”.
There is fear among refugees that Ramadi and the highway linking it to Baghdad will soon be engulfed by fighting. The leaders of the Shia militias such as the Badr Organisation, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the Hezbollah Brigades (different from the Lebanese movement of the same name) will be eager to show that they can succeed where the state security services failed.
Ever since the mass mobilisation of Shia, heeding the call of the immensely influential Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on 13 June last year after Isis took Iraq’s second city, Mosul, there has been rivalry between Shia militias and central government over control of security. Some, but not all, of the militias are under the influence of Iran.
The Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has sought to bring the militiamen, who receive a monthly stipend of $750 (£484) from the government, under his authority. Backed by the US, he was seeking to build up the regular security services and had some success at Tikrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein captured by Isis, which had first been attacked by the militias but which they were unable to take. It eventually fell to an assault backed by US air strikes, led by the regular army’s “Golden Division”, and on 1 April Mr Abadi visited Tikrit and claimed the victory as his own. But he then overplayed his hand, saying that government forces were going to reconquer Anbar and announcing grandly that “we turn to the west”.
In reality, it was Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, which took the initiative and opened its own offensive in Anbar that concluded with the capture of Ramadi and the ruin of Mr Abadi’s plans.
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Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey summed up the recent victory by Islamic State militants in the key Iraqi city of Ramadi this way:
"The [Iraqi security force] was not driven out of Ramadi; they drove out of Ramadi."
Technically, Dempsey was accurate. The Iraqi army abandoned its last remaining positions in Ramadi on Sunday after a chaotic battle that involved a dust storm, dozens of Islamic State car bomb attacks and a breakdown in communications between the beleaguered Iraqi troops on the ground and the American advisers who can provide them with air support, according to U.S. officials.
Officials this week are offering new details of the four-day battle that, in the end, saw the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, raising its black flag over the capital building of Anbar province and declaring its most significant victory in nearly a year.
It began with that dust storm, which enabled militants to launch a wave of suicide bomb attacks at a moment when the city streets were shrouded in orange haze.
Iraqi troops had limited visibility and feared their American ally's capability to provide air cover might be compromised. The initial attack targeted Ramadi's governing center, where the Iraqi army maintained a heavily fortified headquarters.
"There was an armored bulldozer which knocked over the T-wall perimeters, which then was the first explosion. They then had an armored dump truck, an armored Humvee," one senior State Department official said in describing the initial attack.
That was the first in a series of about 30 car bombs, about 10 of which packed "the explosive capacity of an Oklahoma City-type attack," the State Department official said, referring to the 1995 domestic terrorist attack on a federal office building that killed 168 people.
"They took out entire city blocks," said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
Morale among the besieged Iraqi army forces already was low. Those units had been deployed to Ramadi for a year with no leave, no pay over the past six months and no proper resupplies, according to an NBC News report that cited U.S. officials.
The Iraqis also had limited ability to reach back and communicate with their higher headquarters. That confusion led to the ground forces' mistaken belief that "because [of the dust storm], they would not be able to receive air power support," Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday.
"The weather did not impact our ability to conduct airstrikes. But we are coming to the understanding that the commander on the ground believed otherwise," Warren said.
Theoretically, the Iraqi ground troops should be in constant radio contact with their rear echelon and Iraq's combined joint operations center, where American officers are standing by to receive requests for air support and respond immediately.
But that's not how it worked during this battle. "It's unclear at this point what the communication links were at the time," Warren said.
On Sunday, the Iraqi army tried to send a "reinforcing column" into Ramadi's city center, but those troops immediately came under fire and retreated, "which then began a broader retreat from where the security forces were holding," the State Department official said.
The final decision to abandon Ramadi did not come from Iraqi headquarters, Warren noted. "This appears to be a unilateral decision made by a commander on the ground, an Iraqi commander on the ground in Ramadi, based on his assessment of the situation that it was time to withdraw," he said.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dempsey suggested that the Iraqi decision to leave was deliberate and did not reflect a defeat in direct combat. That interview was where Dempsey observed that the Iraqi troops were "not driven out of Ramadi, they drove out of Ramadi."
A prominent Iraqi author, Hisham al-Hashimi, offered a more pointed analysis on Twitter: "Corrupt [Iraqi security forces] commanders in Ramadi took bribes in exchange for battle plans and logistical information."
The fleeing Iraqi army units left behind millions of dollars of American-made military gear, including "dozens" of tracked vehicles, among them about half a dozen M1 Abrams tanks and about 100 armored Humvees and other vehicles, U.S. military officials said.
About 3,000 U.S. troops are deployed to Iraq, most advising and training Iraqi forces inside secure military installations. U.S. officials repeatedly have said they believe the strategy to defeat ISIS is working and no major changes are needed.
Still, officials acknowledge the loss of Ramadi as a significant victory for ISIS and its attempt to expand its so-called caliphate.
"They see their entire campaign as a war of flags, expanding the flags, and so that's why this is very important," the State Department official said.
But U.S. officials also hope the setback is temporary and say this defeat looks nothing like the ISIS advance last June. When militants seized Mosul, Iraqi army units fled in droves and ISIS consolidated control over dozens of cities in northern Iraq.
"We all remember the experience from Mosul, where you just had a domino collapse," the State Department official said.
The official said Ramadi "remains a very serious situation," but added: "I think the silver lining here is ... that the lines more or less have held. You don't have, again, a Mosul situation of a collapse."
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BAGHDAD, May 15 (Reuters) - Islamic State militants raised their black flag over the local government headquarters in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday and claimed victory through mosque loudspeakers after overrunning most of the western provincial capital.
If Ramadi were to fall it would be the first major city seized by the insurgents in Iraq since security forces and paramilitary groups began pushing them back last year.
The insurgents attacked Ramadi overnight using six suicide car bombs to reach the city center, where the Anbar provincial government compound is located, police sources said.
Fighting continued in one district of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and government forces were still in control of a military command center to the west of the city.
"The situation in Ramadi is dire, but the city has not fallen and the battle against criminal Daesh is still ongoing," Anbar governor Sohaib al-Rawi said on Twitter, using an Arabic name for Islamic State.
Ramadi has been fought over for months, but the insurgents renewed their offensive there in April, crushing government forces' efforts to retake Anbar, Iraq's largest province, and move north to the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul.
An army major whose regiment is positioned near the Anbar operations command described the situation as critical and said the militants had taken control of the only major supply route into the city, making it difficult to send reinforcements.
Most army and police units have retreated to the area around the operation command to protect it, he said, but some elite counter-terrorism forces were "fighting for their lives" in the Malaab district of central Ramadi, where they were surrounded.
"If the government does not send any reinforcements and the coalition air force does not rescue us, we will lose all of Ramadi by midnight," the major said.
"A massacre will take place and all of us will be slaughtered. We have been defending the city for months and we don't deserve to end like this. It's humiliating."
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met with military and security leaders as well as the heads of the air force and counter-terrorism on Friday and pledged to intensify efforts to "expel the terrorist gangs from Ramadi."
Still, the U.S. military sought to play down the Islamic State gains, telling a Pentagon news conference the militants were broadly "on the defensive" in Iraq.
Marine Corps Brigadier General Thomas Weidley, chief of staff for U.S.-led coalition operations, said Iraqi forces still controlled most "key facilities, infrastructure and lines of communication" in the Ramadi area.
"(Iraqi forces) will eventually take back the terrain," Weidley said via teleconference.
An Iraqi Sunni tribal fighter aims his gun to protect the headquarters from an attack by Islamic State extremists during a sand storm in the eastern part of Ramadi. (AP Photo)
BAGHDADI SPEECH
Ramadi is one of the few towns and cities to have remained under government control in the vast desert province, which borders Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan.
More than 130,000 people have fled Anbar since the militants renewed their offensive on Ramadi last month, according to the International Organization for Migration. People who had stayed were trying to leave on Friday, but found themselves trapped.
Fifty-seven-year-old shop owner Abu Raad told Reuters he had seen uniforms and weapons discarded by the security forces in the streets. "We are currently being patient and hope that God will save us from this ordeal. We have no where else to go."
In an audio recording issued by Islamic State on Thursday purporting to come from its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph urged displaced residents of Anbar to return to their homes in the Sunni heartland: "For you are our people. We defend you, your honor, and your wealth."
Baghdadi also hailed the Islamic State fighters who had "snatched Anbar from the eyes of the apostates and the throats of the Rafeda, in spite of America and its allies," using a derogatory term for Shi'ite Muslims and referring to U.S.-led coalition air strikes.
Friday's offensive began with the militants using an armored bulldozer to remove blast walls blocking the road to the police department next to the governorate building and blew the vehicle up when it reached there.
A Humvee packed with explosives targeted the education department in the same compound and a third car bomb was detonated at the western entrance to the governorate building itself. Three more car bombs blew up near the Anbar Operations Command. (Writing by Isabel Coles; additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Louise Ireland and Andrew Hay)
Security forces defend their headquarters against attacks by Islamic State extremists during sand storm in the eastern part of Ramadi. (AP Photo)
(Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Louise Ireland)
He says the IS militants are now attacking the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province.
U.S. troops saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year Iraq intervention in Anbar, and Ramadi was a major insurgent stronghold.
The IS assault on the government compound began with three nearly simultaneous suicide car bombings that killed 10 police and wounded seven others.
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Story highlights
- Anbar provincial official: Suicide and car bombs were part of the ISIS assault
- Iraqi and allied forces have had recent success, but ISIS remains powerful
(CNN)ISIS fighters seized several districts in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in an hours-long assault Friday that included suicide and car bombs, an Iraqi provincial official said.
At least 10 Iraqi security forces were killed in the attacks, according to Faleh al-Essawi, the deputy head of Iraq's Anbar provincial council. And the head of the Iraqi military operation in Anbar province, Gen. Qassim al-Muhammadi, was wounded.
The northern Ramadi districts of Albu Faraj, Albu Essa and Albu Risha were in the hands of ISIS by the time the day was done.
Located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Ramadi has seen intense and persistent fighting for months. ISIS took over parts of that western Anbar city in the first half of 2014, and it's been part of a tug of war ever since.
Iraqi security forces discovered tunnels in February that they say could have led opposition fighters to a central government compound in the city. But they didn't find all of them: A few weeks later, ISIS detonated hundreds of homemade bombs from a tunnel underneath an army headquarters there, according to Sabah Al-Karhout, the head of the Anbar provincial council. More than 40 Iraqi soldiers died in that explosion.
Iraqi and allied forces have made inroads in recent weeks, beating back the group that calls itself the Islamic State, which took over vast swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria last year. Their most high-profile victory, for instance, was the recapture of Tikrit. And U.S.-led airstrikes have already made a difference, according to officials in Washington and beyond.
Still, ISIS remains a formidable force and, as the Ramadi assault shows, one that's still capable and willing to go on offense to take territory.
That may be best illustrated by the case of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the site of one of its biggest embarrassments when Iraqi soldiers and police dropped their weapons and fled their postsas ISIS forces advanced last June.
A U.S. official said in February that up to 25,000 Iraqis troops were expected to return to the key northern Iraqi city in April or May. But, on Thursday, a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration appeared to back away from that timeline -- saying an Iraqi-led assault on Mosul "might be some time from now (or) might be soon."
Calling for "patience," an administration official said that winning Mosul is a complex endeavor. The same could be said for the entire effort to defeat ISIS.
It will "take a lot of capacity," the official said, "and some time to build."
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Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
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A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.
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Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
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ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.
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Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
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A U.S. Air Force plane flies above Kobani on Saturday, October 18.
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Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
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Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.
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Turkish police officers secure a basketball stadium in Suruc on October 14. Some Syrian Kurds were held there after crossing from Syria into Turkey. Tens of thousands of people fled Kobani to escape ISIS.
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Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
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Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
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In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force on Saturday, October 4, a U.S. Navy jet is refueled in Iraqi airspace after conducting an airstrike against ISIS militants.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.
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Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
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Tomahawk missiles, intended for ISIS targets in Syria, fly above the Persian Gulf after being fired by the USS Philippine Sea in this image released by the U.S. Navy on Tuesday, September 23.
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Turkish Kurds clash with Turkish security forces during a protest near Suruc on Monday, September 22. According to Time magazine, the protests were over Turkey's temporary decision to close the border with Syria.
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Syrian Kurds fleeing ISIS militants wait behind a fence in Suruc on Sunday, September 21.
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A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces stand guard at their position in the Omar Khaled village west of Mosul on Sunday, August 24.
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Kurdish Peshmergas fight to regain control of the town of Celavle, in Iraq's Diyala province, on August 24.
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Peshmerga fighters stand guard at Mosul Dam in northern Iraq on Thursday, August 21. With the help of U.S. military airstrikes, Kurdish and Iraqi forces retook the dam from ISIS militants on August 18. A breach of the dam would have been catastrophic for millions of Iraqis who live downstream from it.
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Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
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Peshmerga fighters inspect the remains of a car that reportedly belonged to ISIS militants and was targeted by a U.S. airstrike in the village of Baqufa, north of Mosul, on August 18.
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS in Khazair, Iraq, on Thursday, August 14.
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Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
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Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
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Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
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A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
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A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.
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New army recruits gather in Najaf, Iraq, on Wednesday, June 18, following a call for Iraqis to take up arms against Islamic militant fighters.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces, along with Iraqi special forces, deploy their troops and armored vehicles outside of Kirkuk, Iraq, on June 12.
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Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
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Civilians from Mosul escape to a refugee camp near Irbil, Iraq, on June 10.
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People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. The militant group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.
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Iraqi security forces withdraw from Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, on Sunday, May 17.ISIS took control of the city, according to the city's mayor and a high-ranking security official. The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
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A car bomb, believed to be set by ISIS militants, explodes at the gate of a government building near the provincial governor's compound in Ramadi on Saturday, May 16.
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Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.
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A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.
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Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18. Iraqi special forces maintained control of the provincial capital after days of intense clashes with ISIS left the city at risk.
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Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad, as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
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Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters gather before attacking ISIS militants in Ramadi on Wednesday, April 15.
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People leave their hometown of Ramadi on April 15. ISIS' offensive in Ramadi shows its resilience despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes and a recent defeat in the northern city of Tikrit.
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Security forces arrive to Ramadi to join the battle against ISIS on April 15.
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Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
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A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8.
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Security forces in Tikrit chant slogans against the ISIS militant group on Friday, April 3. They had just reopened the main gate of their base, which was closed for months while ISIS occupied the city.
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People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
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A member of Iraq's security forces beats a suspected ISIS member who was captured in Tikrit on Wednesday, April 1.
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On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.
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Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen prepare to attack ISIS militants in Tikrit on Tuesday, March 31. Ousting ISIS from Tikrit was an important step for the coalition, which is trying to thwart the extremist group's quest to grow its caliphate.
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Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
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An Iraqi soldier searches for ISIS fighters in Tikrit on March 30.
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Smoke billows after a mortar shell hit an Anbar governorate building in Ramadi, Iraq, on Wednesday, March 11. ISIS launched a coordinated attack on government-held areas of the western Iraqi city.
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The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.
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Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.
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Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants recently abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria.
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Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.
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A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.
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Smoke billows in Kirkuk as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position against ISIS militants on January 30.
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Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
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Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
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Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
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ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
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An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.
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Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.
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Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
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A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.
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Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
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ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.
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Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
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A U.S. Air Force plane flies above Kobani on Saturday, October 18.
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Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
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Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.
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Turkish police officers secure a basketball stadium in Suruc on October 14. Some Syrian Kurds were held there after crossing from Syria into Turkey. Tens of thousands of people fled Kobani to escape ISIS.
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Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
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Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
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In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force on Saturday, October 4, a U.S. Navy jet is refueled in Iraqi airspace after conducting an airstrike against ISIS militants.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.
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Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
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Tomahawk missiles, intended for ISIS targets in Syria, fly above the Persian Gulf after being fired by the USS Philippine Sea in this image released by the U.S. Navy on Tuesday, September 23.
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Turkish Kurds clash with Turkish security forces during a protest near Suruc on Monday, September 22. According to Time magazine, the protests were over Turkey's temporary decision to close the border with Syria.
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Syrian Kurds fleeing ISIS militants wait behind a fence in Suruc on Sunday, September 21.
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A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces stand guard at their position in the Omar Khaled village west of Mosul on Sunday, August 24.
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Kurdish Peshmergas fight to regain control of the town of Celavle, in Iraq's Diyala province, on August 24.
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Peshmerga fighters stand guard at Mosul Dam in northern Iraq on Thursday, August 21. With the help of U.S. military airstrikes, Kurdish and Iraqi forces retook the dam from ISIS militants on August 18. A breach of the dam would have been catastrophic for millions of Iraqis who live downstream from it.
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Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
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Peshmerga fighters inspect the remains of a car that reportedly belonged to ISIS militants and was targeted by a U.S. airstrike in the village of Baqufa, north of Mosul, on August 18.
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS in Khazair, Iraq, on Thursday, August 14.
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Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
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Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
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Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
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A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
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A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.
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New army recruits gather in Najaf, Iraq, on Wednesday, June 18, following a call for Iraqis to take up arms against Islamic militant fighters.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces, along with Iraqi special forces, deploy their troops and armored vehicles outside of Kirkuk, Iraq, on June 12.
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Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
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Civilians from Mosul escape to a refugee camp near Irbil, Iraq, on June 10.
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People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. The militant group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.
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Iraqi security forces withdraw from Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, on Sunday, May 17.ISIS took control of the city, according to the city's mayor and a high-ranking security official. The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
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A car bomb, believed to be set by ISIS militants, explodes at the gate of a government building near the provincial governor's compound in Ramadi on Saturday, May 16.
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Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.
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A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.
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Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18. Iraqi special forces maintained control of the provincial capital after days of intense clashes with ISIS left the city at risk.
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Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad, as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
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Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters gather before attacking ISIS militants in Ramadi on Wednesday, April 15.
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People leave their hometown of Ramadi on April 15. ISIS' offensive in Ramadi shows its resilience despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes and a recent defeat in the northern city of Tikrit.
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Security forces arrive to Ramadi to join the battle against ISIS on April 15.
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Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
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A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8.
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Security forces in Tikrit chant slogans against the ISIS militant group on Friday, April 3. They had just reopened the main gate of their base, which was closed for months while ISIS occupied the city.
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People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
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A member of Iraq's security forces beats a suspected ISIS member who was captured in Tikrit on Wednesday, April 1.
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On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.
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Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen prepare to attack ISIS militants in Tikrit on Tuesday, March 31. Ousting ISIS from Tikrit was an important step for the coalition, which is trying to thwart the extremist group's quest to grow its caliphate.
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Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
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An Iraqi soldier searches for ISIS fighters in Tikrit on March 30.
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Smoke billows after a mortar shell hit an Anbar governorate building in Ramadi, Iraq, on Wednesday, March 11. ISIS launched a coordinated attack on government-held areas of the western Iraqi city.
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The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.
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Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.
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Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants recently abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria.
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Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.
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A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.
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Smoke billows in Kirkuk as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position against ISIS militants on January 30.
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Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
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Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
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Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
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ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
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An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.
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Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.
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Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
CNN's Kim Acosta contributed to this report.
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Isis captured Ramadi on Sunday with the aid of sleeper cells inside the strategic city and double agents within the Iraqi security forces, an adviser to Baghdad on the terror group and an Iraq expert have revealed.
The sleeper cells, believed to consist of dozens of militants who were Ramadi locals, were mobilised by Isis leaders, according to Dr Hisham al-Hashimi, the adviser to the Iraqi government on Isis who exclusively revealed to Newsweek last month that a former physics teacher had temporarily replaced the terror group's caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"The sleeper cells in Ramadi [were] activated by Isis commanders in Iraq," Hashimi tweeted late last night. "All evidence and studies have shown that Isis fighters who took Ramadi were locals of city. Most operated as sleeper cells."
"Corrupt ISF commanders in Ramadi took bribes in exchange for battle plans and logistical information," he added.
The terror group's militants overran the Iraqi forces defending Ramadi on Sunday, forcing them into retreat. Since then a large force of Iranian-backed militiamen has amassed in the area, preparing for an assault to retake the city.
Residents have claimed that Isis have already started planting landmines around the city to prepare for the battle while there have been reports of executions of government supporters. The UN has also estimated that 25,000 people have fled the city which is situated 105km (65 miles) from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Sajad Jiyad, Iraq expert and director of research at independent consultancy Integrity, confirms the use of sleeper cells and double agents in the attack and says that any attempt to recapture Ramadi will take over two months, a similar timeframe to the offensive on Tikrit.
"Sleeper cells definitely played a part. We know the external assault on Ramadi was maybe 200-300 men," says Jiyad. "It was not massive but there were dozens of men inside Ramadi itself, inside the city. They were working undercover for Isis and were sleeper cells and they smuggled in weapons so they began an external and an internal assault."
"Isis has double agents. They have people who they have recruited from last year," he adds. "Remember, the prime minister issued an amnesty last month saying everybody who had left their jobs could come back and they would not be punished. So there are people who have come back to their jobs and they probably have their allegiance and loyalty to Isis."
The loss of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, deals a significant blow to Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi's mission to oust the terror group from the territory it captured when it swept across the country last summer. The spreading of Iraqi forces battling Isis in western Iraq and northern Iraq has almost certainly delayed a projected spring offensive on Mosul to 2016.
However, the downfall of Ramadi has been expected. In March, the group carried out 21 simultaneous suicide bombings in government-held districts in the western city, killing 10 people and wounding 30. Ramadi is one of Iraq's largest cities and represented one of the Iraqi government's last strongholds in Anbar province on the path towards Baghdad.
It is believed that an offensive to recapture the city won't begin until the terror group's militants are contained and prevented from moving further eastward towards Baghdad. The group were repelled from taking the town of Khaldiyah, east of Ramadi, by Iraqi forces and Sunni tribesman on Monday, a tribal leader told the Associated Press.
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“Clean” ISF commanders felt isolated by the corruption of those around them, he said.
The Iraqi army’s elite “Golden Brigade” found itself surrounded and cut off at the end of last weekafter a major push at Ramadi’s weak points by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Thursday.
Survivors told The Daily Telegraph that they received no support as concerted suicide bombs, including a mechanical digger and a petrol tanker, were set off to clear the way into the central government compound area.
It was in a separate attack on the main military base in the city that troops there fled, leaving their American-supplied equipment behind.
The retreat mirrored the devastating loss of much of Sunni-occupied Iraq last summer, when the cities of Tikrit and Mosul fell in the space of a few days.
Immediately after the loss of Ramadi, the Obama administration tried to play down the defeat. John Kerry, the secretary of state, said he was "absolutely confident" that the situation could be reversed “within days”.
However, the Pentagon meanwhile authorised US-led coalition air strikes on Isil positions in Ramadi to continue even though the forces called up to lead the fight-back by the Iraqi authorities include Iran-backed Shia militias.
In April, it took both the militias and US air strikes to oust Isil from the city of Tikrit.
“The US alone cannot defeat Isil, Iran cannot defeat Isil, Iraq alone certainly cannot defeat Isil,” said Hayder al-Khoei, an Iraqi analyst, speaking at Chatham House in London on Tuesday.
“They need to come together to fight a common threat.”
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Dust storm, car bombs and confusion: Inside the Battle for Ramadi
Military Times-May 21, 2015
"The [Iraqi security force] was not driven out of Ramadi; they drove out of Ramadi." ... also known asISIS, raising its black flag over the capital building of Anbar ... attacks at a moment when the city streets were shrouded in orange haze. ... "Corrupt [Iraqi security forces] commanders in Ramadi tookbribes in ...
Isis sleeper cells and double agents helped capture of Ramadi
Newsweek-May 19, 2015
"The sleeper cells in Ramadi [were] activated by Isis commanders in Iraq," Hashimi ... "Corrupt ISFcommanders in Ramadi took bribes in exchange for battle ... Sajad Jiyad, Iraq expert and director of research at independent ...
Iraqi army 'abandoned tanks, artillery and Humvees' to Isil in fall of ...
Telegraph.co.uk-May 19, 2015
Telegraph.co.uk-May 19, 2015
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