Displaced Iraqis from Ramadi rest before crossing the Bzebiz bridge after spending the night walking towards Baghdad, as they flee their hometown. Photo / AP
Displaced Iraqis from Ramadi rest before crossing the Bzebiz bridge after spending the night walking towards Baghdad, as they flee their hometown. Photo / AP
Loss of capital of nation’s largest province is Baghdad’s latest military setback against Isis.
Shia militia groups have converged on the Iraqi city of Ramadi to help wrest it back from Isis (Islamic State) fighters, who seized it in a three-day blitz.
A spokesman for Ketaeb Hezbollah, one of the leading Shia paramilitary groups in Iraq, said his organisation had units ready to join the Ramadi front from three directions. "Tomorrow, God willing, these reinforcements will continue towards Anbar and Ramadi and the start of operations to cleanse the areas recently captured by Daesh will be announced," Jaafar al-Husseini said, using an Arab acronym for Isis.
The effective loss of the capital of Iraq's largest province was Baghdad's worst military setback since it started clawing back land from the jihadists late last year. "God has enabled the soldiers of the caliphate to cleanse all of Ramadi," Isis said online. A spokesman for Anbar's governor confirmed the news, saying: "Ramadi has fallen."
Days after a rare message from Isis supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urging mass mobilisation, the group came close to also seizing the heritage site of Palmyra in Syria, but the army forced the jihadists back.
Isis' seizure of Ramadi underscores the challenge facing the Obama Administration in defeating the group, which has proven resilient to air strikes. The jihadists now control three provincial capitals in Iraq and Syria.
Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad, effectively fell to Isis when beleaguered Iraqi security forces pulled out from their last bases early yesterday.
The jihadists used waves of suicide car bombs to thrust into government-controlled neighbourhoods last week. The group's black flag was soon flying above the provincial headquarters and, with reinforcements slow to come, thousands of families fled the city. Anbar officials said at least 500 people died in three days.
The family of 19-year-old Irfaan Hussein have confirmed his death.
Muhannad Haimour, spokesman and adviser to Anbar's Governor, said fighting was continuing in some pockets of the city. Iraqi military officials said all main security bases had been abandoned. Taha Abdul Ghani, a member of Anbar's provincial council, said the withdrawal order was made to prevent mass casualties.
"There's no one here to defend us - our army has melted away" one resident said.
Neither US nor Iraqi officials want to repeat the kind of discord that complicated their recent battle to wrest back the city of Tikrit from Isis' hands. The fight was initially led by Shia militias with direct backing from Iran. After a fortnight of fighting in which the militias suffered heavy losses, Baghdad called on the US to begin air strikes and units loyal to Iran withdrew.
Meanwhile, a Melbourne teenager with links to youths accused of terrorist acts in Australia has reportedly been killed while fighting with Isis in the Middle East.
The family of 19-year-old Irfaan Hussein have confirmed his death but did not comment on claims he was beheaded while trying to return home or was killed in a bomb blast, the Herald Sun reports.
Hussein, who called himself Abu Sufyan Al Australi, attended Lyndale Secondary College with Numan Haider, who was shot dead last year after stabbing two Melbourne police officers. Haider, 18, was killed with a single shot to the head outside the Endeavour Hills police station during his attack on the officers. The police had planned to meet Haider to discuss his passport being cancelled.
Hussein is believed to have travelled to the Middle East at about the same time as his schoolfriend was shot dead. Hussein was reported to have been killed back in March but his family have confirmed the news only now.
Police told a court this month that another Melbourne teenage terror suspect, Harun Causevic, had Hussein's international phone number when he was arrested for allegedly plotting attacks on Anzac Day. Causevic is charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act with 18-year-old Sevdet Ramden Besim that allegedly targeted Anzac Day celebrations in Melbourne.
