IS seizes government HQ in Iraq’s Ramadi
Raises its flag over the headquarters in capital of Anbar province as Baghdadi’s new audio message appears
BAGHDAD: Islamic State (IS) fighters seized the government compound in the city of Ramadi on Friday and edged closer to what would be their biggest victory in Iraq this year, officials said.
The loss of the capital of Anbar province, which PM Haider al-Abadi had said would be the next target of government forces after wresting back Tikrit last month, would be a major setback for Baghdad.
IS has threatened to take control of Ramadi for months and the breakthrough came after a wide offensive on several fronts in the province, including an assault using several suicide car bombs in Ramadi on Thursday.
The jihadists seized the government complex at around 2.00 pm (4.30 pm IST) and raised the black flag, a police officer said, giving them nearly full control over Anbar’s capital. IS “now occupies the government centre in Ramadi,” the police major said.
The group itself issued a statement saying its fighters broke into the government complex, and blew up the adjacent buildings of Anbar’s governorate and the police headquarters.
A tribal leader said the town, which is near the large airbase of Al-Asad where several hundred US advisers are stationed, had been left insufficiently protected. CHIEF’S AUDIO MESSAGE IS released a new audio in which its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged Muslims to emigrate to his self-proclaimed “caliphate”. This was the jihadist supremo’s first audio recording in six months.
“AndwecalluponeveryMuslim in every place to perform hijrah (emigration) to the Islamic State or fight in his land wherever that may be,” he said. The voice reading the half-hour speech appeared to match previous audio recordings of Baghdadi.
As did his previous speech, the audio tape recording comes a few days after media reports that he might have been seriously wounded in a strike by the US-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria.