ISIL seizes control of Iraq’s Ramadi

The Punch - Nigeria

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group have overrun one of the last remaining districts held by government forces in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, security officials have said.

Iraqi special forces soldiers were reported to be fleeing the city on Sunday as the armed group succeeded in breaching their last holdout.

The armed group had earlier made significant gains in its battle to control Ramadi, besieging the army base and killing 15 soldiers in multiple suicide car bomb attacks.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said government officials had requested reinforcements from Shia factions in response to the ISIL advance, a move that could provoke opposition from the government’s Sunni tribal allies.

“There are many influential tribes in Anbar who have warned against this decision for some time now,” Khodr said.

The involvement of Shia militias has been condemned by leading tribal figure, Sheikh Ali al-Hatim, who said it would be considered an “Iranian occupation”.