After losses to ISIS, Iraqi army regains ground in Ramadi
BAGHDAD - Iraq security forces have recaptured areas lost earlier to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in and around the battleground city of Ramadi, security officials said Tuesday.
According to police Maj. Omar al-Alawni, government forces regained control of the city's Pediatric and Maternity Hospital and the surrounding neighborhood late Monday night after fierce clashes with ISIS militants. The hospital is located about 500 yards from a complex of government offices.
On Tuesday, Iraqi troops were engaged in intense clashes in an offensive to regain control of Soufiya, one of three villages that fell into the hands of ISIS last week, said police Col. Mahdi Abbas.
Both officials said the battles turned in favor of government forces after the arrival of reinforcements and weapons from Baghdad. At least 12 militants were killed in the clashes overnight, they said.
Footage obtained by The Associated Press showed military black Humvees advancing in a residential area in Ramadi and Iraqi soldiers firing their rifles while taking shelter behind a wall.
The security situation in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, sharply deteriorated after ISIS seized Soufiya and the two other villages, Sjariyah and Albu-Ghanim, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes.
Elsewhere in Iraq, police said a bomb exploded Tuesday in a commercial street in the town of Madain, just south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding four. Later in the day, a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in the capital's western suburbs, killing two policemen and also wounding four.
Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
In the two weeks since ISIS overran central Ramadi, thousands of people have streamed out of the city, fleeing the brutal clashes between the extremists and Iraqi security forces.
With the announcement late Monday that the Iraqi military has retaken key areas in and around the city, the tide has suddenly shifted: Thousands are turning around and heading back toward Ramadi turning this rickety, makeshift bridge over the Euphrates River into a scene of chaos and clogged traffic.
Through the heat and blinding dust, men and women loaded down with suitcases and bags crossed the bridge west of Baghdad on Tuesday. Some led livestock on ropes. Others pushed carts carrying children or the elderly and a few meager possessions.
Many said they had nowhere to go. In war-weary Iraq, residents of cities like Baghdad view the mostly Sunni residents of Anbar province with suspicion.
One man who was still headed away from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, bellowed a warning to those who were streaming back toward it.
"Turn around!" he cautioned as he crossed into Baghdad province. "It's not safe!"
Iraqi security forces - supported by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition - have been making gains in recent weeks to take back territory seized last year by extremists from ISIS. Iraqi troops were fresh off a victory last month in the city of Tikrit when the militants pushed into Ramadi, endangering the more than 114,000 residents.
Buoyed by the strong air campaign and volunteer fighters, the military made a quick and decisive response in Ramadi. Still, residents took no chances and fled the city in unprecedented numbers.
In the days that followed, however, some changed their mind and believed they were better off at home.
That has spurring the frantic two-way traffic on the bridge - a temporary structure erected in place of one bombed by the militants. The new one was meant to support no more than the occasional fruit-and-vegetable cart heading for Baghdad, whose outskirts are about 40 miles to the east.
