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U.S. NEWSMonday 28 December 2015

IS puts up heavy fight to slow Iraqi troop advance on Ramadi

Iraqi Security forces enter the heavy damaged downtown Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) capital, which was cap- IS militants had withdrawn
tured by IS militants in May, from the neighborhood of
west of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015. Islamic State fighters are putting up a tough fight but after an initial push Albu Alwan, adjacent to
across the Euphrates River, the complex.
in the militant-held city of Ramadi, slowing down the advance of Iraqi forces, Gen. Ismail al- their progress stalled. Another officer said the
Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, Iraqi army has yet to gain
Mahlawi, head of the Anbar military operations, said Sunday. (AP Photo) head of the Anbar military full control of a single Ra-
operations, told The Asso- madi neighborhood. He
QASSIM ZAHRA up a tough fight in the mil- commander said Sunday. ciated Press that the ad- spoke on condition of an-
Associated Press itant-held city of Ramadi, Iraq launched the long- vance was hampered by onymity because he was
BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic slowing down the advance awaited operation to re- suicide bombers, snipers not authorized to talk to
State fighters are putting of Iraqi forces, a senior Iraqi take the Anbar provincial and booby traps. reporters.
Iraqi troops will “need On Tuesday, Iraqi security
days” to get to the city’s forces reported progress in
central government com- recapturing some areas in
plex, said al-Mahlawi, add- the western city of Rama-
ing that the troops were di, 130 kilometers (80 miles)
about one kilometer (half west of Baghdad, from IS
mile) from the complex on militants.
Sunday. The extremists control large
Al-Mahlawi said he could swaths of land in western
neither confirm nor deny and northern Iraq and in
media reports that IS fight- neighboring Syria. The IS
ers had pulled out of the group has declared a self-
government complex by styled caliphate on the ter-
nightfall Sunday. But he ritory under its control.
cited residents in the area After overrunning Ramadi,
as telling his troops that the IS destroyed all the bridges
around the city. It also de-
North African al-Qaida: Top figure killed in ambush molished the Anbar op-
erations command center
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A the Sharia Committee, was noon near Azeffoun, in the name when it joined the and fanned out into the
leading figure of the North killed on Friday “as a result northeast of the Tizi Ouzou al-Qaida network in 2007 city’s residential areas to
African affiliate of al-Qaida of an insidious ambush by region but didn’t fully iden- under the leadership of Ab- set up less conspicuous
has been killed in an am- the apostates,” according tify them. delmalek Droukdel, who is centers of command.
bush by Algerian soldiers, to a statement translated The ministry statement said believed to be holed up in A statement late Sunday
one of 109 terrorists killed by the SITE Intelligence the two had been mem- the mountainous Tizi Ouzou from the Iraqi joint com-
by Algerian security forces Group. The statement said bers of terrorist groups since region while overseeing a mand said the operation
in 2015, the country’s De- he was killed in the Tizi Ou- 1994, three years after the southern front in the Sahel. in Anbar is going accord-
fense Ministry said Sunday. zou region east of Algiers. start of a bloody Islamist in- The once-feared AQIM is ing to plans and that Iraqi
Al-Qaida in the Islamic The Algerian Defense Min- surgency in Algeria. now blamed for sporadic forces continue to encircle
Maghreb, or AQIM, said istry said late Friday that AQIM grew out of the Salaf- attacks in Algeria, often the government complex
that Abu al-Hassan Ra- two “dangerous terrorists” ist Group for Preaching and targeting soldiers in the Tizi in Ramadi. It made no
chid al-Bulaydi, head of had been killed that after- Combat and changed its Ouzou region.q mention of any pullout of
IS militants from the area.q