Anbar’s Cities are Free but Extremists still Attack

“The path from eastern Ramadi to Heet make for a significant security threat,” the mayor of the Ramadi district, Ibrahim al-Awsaj, told NIQASH. “The Islamic State group was expelled from Ramadi city but it still poses a danger as the fighters try to infiltrate some of the outlying villages from time to time.”

Since the IS group was pushed out of Ramadi late in 2015, there have been a number of attacks from the north western side of the city. “From the Albu Ali al-Jassim side, and they targeted the villages of Tawi and Zankura,” al-Awsaj explained. “So there are still military operations taking place to try and get the terrorist gangs out of this desert area, and to stop their attacks.”

The areas where the extremist gangs camp are well known, al-Awsaj points out. “But up until now all efforts have been focused on the cities,” he says. “We all know that this will not be enough. Our security forces will always be threatened and always on the defensive. This is depleting both the human and financial resources of the local government and the central government.”

“The cities in Anbar will continue to come under threat from the desert areas because they have not yet been liberated,” says Major General Tariq al-Asal, who commands volunteer militias in Anbar and was formerly the police chief in Anbar. “These areas are a threat to the Habbaniyah and Khalidiya areas as well as to the Habbaniyah military base. And there are also other dangerous areas, from the Albu Ali al-Jassim area extending all the way to the Syrian border.”