Iraqis launch counter-attack against ISIS near Ramadi
After days of ISIS fighters advancing east out of Ramadi, an alliance of Iraqi forces opposed to the terror group say they've launched a counterattack -- hoping to push them away from a key Iraqi military base and the country's capital. The Iraqis repelled an ISIS attack on the town of Khalidiya and then launched their […]Arwa Damon, Jason Hanna, and Hamdi Alkhshali report for CNN:
After days of ISIS fighters advancing east out of Ramadi, an alliance of Iraqi forces opposed to the terror group say they've launched a counterattack -- hoping to push them away from a key Iraqi military base and the country's capital. The Iraqis repelled an ISIS attack on the town of Khalidiya and then launched their own offensive to the west Saturday, toward the town of Husayba, which ISIS captured just a day earlier, said Faleh al-Eissawi, deputy governor of Anbar province.
The pushback by Sunni tribal fighters, Iraqi security forces and a Shiite militia could comprise the first significant counterattack in the area since ISIS took control of Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, earlier this month. The fighting in the Ramadi area has prompted thousands of civilians to flee in recent weeks, many of them to Baghdad, 65 miles (105 kilometers) to the east.
