Iraqi Troops Tightening Stranglehold on Ramadi, Key District Recaptured

The Iraqi army inflicted major losses on ISIL terrorists in the Western Anbar province and recaptured a key district near Ramadi from the grip of the Takfiri terrorists.

The army troops, backed by Shiite and Sunni volunteer fighters, intensified their offensive against the Takfiri group near the city of Ramadi and managed to take back the Morur district on Saturday.

The retaking of the strategic district will open the way for Iraqi troops to make further gains in their fight against the ISIL in the flash point city of Ramadi.

The army troops also seized control of the Anbar traffic police building in an area called Khamsa Kilometer near Ramadi. An army officer said ISIL terrorists were forced to withdraw from the building after a fierce fighting.

Latest reports coming out of the city suggest that the army troops closed in on the city from three directions early on Saturday, laying a siege on the Takfiri group.

This is while the Iraqi forces also tightened their noose around the terrorists in the Northern Tharthar district.

The latest developments came after Iraq’s Ministry of Defense issued a statement on Saturday, saying that the army troops claimed the lives of 45 ISIL terrorists in Western Baghdad after storming the terrorists’ hideouts.

Elsewhere in Iraq, 38 Takfiri militants were killed and 90 others captured in Salahuddin province, the statement added.

It added that elsewhere in Anbar province, Iraqi army units killed at least 16 ISIL terrorists in the Abu-Shehab neighborhood of the provincial capital Ramadi, 18 in the al-Kurma region and 20 others in the al-Qa’im area.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently control shrinking swathes of Syria and Iraq. They have threatened all communities, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Ezadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

The ISIL has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.