Iraqi forces retook territory from the Islamic State jihadist group east of Ramadi on Saturday, commanders said, in their first counterattack since Anbar’s provincial capital fell a week ago.
A mosaic of anti-IS forces had for days been massing in the Euphrates Valley to ready for an offensive aimed at turning the tide on rampant jihadists.
The May 17 takeover of Ramadi was Baghdad’s worst defeat in almost a year while the capture three days later of the Syrian city of Palmyra positioned IS for a possible drive on Damascus.
Security officials said an operation was launched early today to retake Husaybah, a town seven kilometres east of Ramadi in the Euphrates Valley, that IS had seized earlier in the week.
“The Husaybah area is now under full control and the forces are now advancing to liberate neighbouring Jweibah,” a police colonel told AFP from the front.
Anbar’s most prominent Sunni tribal leader, Sheikh Rafia Abdelkarim al-Fahdawi, deployed his forces, whose knowledge of the terrain is key, alongside fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi, an umbrella for Shiite militia and volunteers.
The police colonel said the Husaybah operation also involved local and federal police, the interior ministry’s rapid intervention force as well as the army.
Swift action was seen as essential to prevent IS from laying booby traps across Ramadi, which would make any advance in the city more risky and complicated.
But government and allied forces were also keen to prevent further losses as IS used its momentum after seizing Ramadi to take more land to the east of the city.
“What happened in Anbar is very similar to what happened last year in Diyala, Mosul and Salaheddin,” said Ahmed al-Assadi, spokesman of the Hashed al-Shaabi (popular mobilisation).
He was referring to the debacle of security forces when IS-led fighters swept across Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June last year, bringing Iraq to the brink of collapse.