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Iraqi forces 'enter Islamic State Ramadi stronghold' | Iraqi forces 'enter Islamic State Ramadi stronghold' |
(35 minutes later) | |
Iraqi forces have entered a former government compound in Ramadi, from where Islamic State (IS) group militants have been resisting an army offensive, sources have told the BBC. | |
The source said troops had entered one building and were planning to push cautiously through the rest of the huge compound amid fears of explosives. | The source said troops had entered one building and were planning to push cautiously through the rest of the huge compound amid fears of explosives. |
IS militants are believed to have fled to the north-east of the city. | IS militants are believed to have fled to the north-east of the city. |
The government has been trying to retake Ramadi for weeks. | |
The mainly Sunni Arab city, about 55 miles (90km) west of Baghdad, fell to IS in May, and was seen as an embarrassing defeat for the army. | |
In recent days, troops have been picking their way through booby-trapped streets and buildings as they pushed towards the city centre, seizing several districts on the way. | |
They were reported to be within a few hundred yards of the former provincial administrative headquarters on Saturday. | |
When sniper fire from the compound stopped, and aerial surveillance detected no human activity, a group of Iraqi soldiers moved in, the source said. | |
They reportedly entered what used to be the city's department of health, housing a blood bank. | |
The Iraqi military believes the militants have headed north-east; fighting meanwhile is reported to be under way to the south-west of the compound. | |
The operation to recapture Ramadi began in early November, but has made slow progress, mainly because the government chose not to use the powerful Shia-dominated paramilitary force that helped it regain the northern city of Tikrit, to avoid increasing sectarian tensions. | |
Concern remains for the plight of hundreds of families who have been trapped on the frontline, the BBC's Thomas Fessy reports from Baghdad. |