December 23, 2015
OUR REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT:
Iraqi Forces Fighting ISIS for Ramadi Push Toward City Center (OMAR AL-JAWOSHY, SEWELL CHAN and KAREEM FAHIM, DEC. 22, 2015, NY Times)
For the first time, Iraqi forces engaged Islamic State fighters within the city center of Ramadi on Tuesday, reaching the edge of the inner government district in an attempt to seize the critical western provincial capital after months of approach and maneuvering, officials said."We went into the center of Ramadi from different axes, and we started clearing residential areas," Gen. Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the army counterterrorism unit in charge of the offensive, said in a statement Tuesday. He predicted that "the city will be cleared within the coming 72 hours."Six hundred to 1,000 Islamic State fighters were said to have been in Ramadi when the overall offensive began two weeks ago, but several hundred of them have been killed in fighting and airstrikes since then, according to Iraqi and Western officials.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 23, 2015 1:24 PM