Iraqi security forces have moved to within a few hundred meters of the government complex in Ramadi, as they try for a decisive victory to retake the devastated city from Islamic State militants.
Iraqi officials said December 26 snipers, improvised roadside bombs and suicide attackers have slowed the push to root out the remaining militants, who seized the city in May.
A spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Rasool, said army troops and an elite counterterrorism unit were within 800 meters of the complex, helped by air strikes from the U.S.-led international coalition.
As many as 400 fighters are believed to remain in the city.
If government troops retake Ramadi, it will be the second major city, after Tikrit, to be retaken.
That would give Iraq’s government and its allies badly needed momentum to push Islamic State out of the rest of its territory, including the country’s second largest city, Mosul.
Editors' Picks
Top Trending
1
In Ukraine's Donbas, Intensifying Russian Offensives -- An Omen Of Things To Come?
2'They Will Send The Army To Ukraine': Bulgarian Social Media Flooded With Rumors Of Military Draft
3Interview: Writer Vladimir Sorokin Says Russia's Unresolved Historical Traumas Have Now 'Taken The Form Of War'
4Denounced By Her Classmates, Anti-War Russian Teen Faces A Long Prison Term
5Ukraine Will Hold Bakhmut, Zelenskiy Vows, Amid Warnings About New Offensive In The East
6Biden To Speak With Zelenskiy As Ukraine's Calls For Fighter Jets Grow Louder
7The Week In Russia: Stalingrad And A 'Stupid, Criminal War'
8Wider Europe Briefing: Sending Leopards To Ukraine Is About More Than Tanks; Plus, Hungary's Habit Of Horse-Trading
9European Ban On Russian Diesel, Other Oil Products Takes Effect
10Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
Subscribe