Iraq orders residents to leave Islamic militant-controlled city

PHOTO: www.upi.com

The leaflets indicated safe routes for civilians to exit the city and asked them to carry proper identification documents. Joint operations spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters by phone that, “All security forces were instructed on how to deal with civilian approaching them.”

Last week Iraqi security forces said they had made advances on two fronts in Ramadi, clearing Islamic State militants from a military command base and the sprawling neighborhood of al-Taamim on the western rim of the city that they captured in May. Iraqi intelligence put the number of Islamic State fighters that entrenched in the centre of Ramadi, capital of the Sunni Anbar province, at between 250 and 300.