BAGHDAD—More than 2,000 families have fled the Iraqi city of Ramadi with little more than the clothes on their backs, officials said on Thursday, as the Islamic State (IS) group closed in on the capital of western Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops and turning it into a ghost town.
The extremist group, which has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year, captured three villages on Ramadi’s eastern outskirts on Wednesday.
The advance is widely seen as a counteroffensive after the IS lost the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, earlier this month.
Hundreds of US troops are training Iraqi forces at a military base west of Ramadi, but a US military official said the fighting had no impact on the US soldiers there, and that there were no plans to withdraw them.
The fleeing Ramadi residents were settling in the southern and western suburbs of Baghdad, and tents, food and other aid were being sent to them, said Sattar Nowruz, an official of the Ministry of Migration and the Displaced.
The ministry was assessing the situation with the provincial government in order “to provide the displaced people, who are undergoing difficult conditions, with better services and help,” Nowruz said.
Sporadic clashes were still under way on Thursday, according to security officials in Ramadi. Government forces control the city center, while the IS group has had a presence in the suburbs and outskirts for months. They described Ramadi as a ghost town, with empty streets and closed shops.
Video obtained by the Associated Press (AP) showed plumes of thick, black smoke billowing above the city as fighter jets pounded militant targets. On the city outskirts, displaced residents frantically tried to make their way out amid the heavy bombardment.
US-led coalition air strikes targeted the IS group in Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, the three villages the extremists captured on Wednesday, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media.
Anbar’s deputy governor, Faleh al-Issawi, described the situation in Ramadi as “catastrophic” and urged the central government to send in reinforcements.
“We urge the Baghdad government to supply us immediately with troops and weapons in order to help us prevent the city from falling into the hands of the IS group,” he told the AP in a telephone interview.
The spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said access to the city was limited but humanitarian workers were trying to verify the reports of fleeing residents.
Prior to the current bout of fighting, some 400,000 Iraqis were already displaced, including 60,000 in Ramadi district, according to the International Organization for Migration.
AP
Image credits: AP