Iraqi forces launch operation to drive ISIS from Anbar, Salaheddin

May 26, 2015 19:22

Iraq forces have launched a major military operation to liberate Iraq's Anbar and Salaheddin provinces from ISIS, Iraqi state media and a key Shia militia group said Tuesday, a little more than a week after the militant group overran Anbar's provincial capital, Ramadi.

The fighting in Salaheddin province is aimed at cutting a supply route south into Anbar and liberate Baiji city and oil refinery, according to the media office for the militia group, al-Hashd al-Shaabi.

In Anbar province, the military operations will be in Karna, northeast of Falluja, and around Ramadi, it said.

ISIS fighters swept into Ramadi on May 17, tightening control of the Anbar province and gaining a base of operations 70 miles away from Baghdad.

US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter publicly criticized the Iraqi army over the weekend, saying it lacked the will to fight.

The Obama administration has since sought to mend fences, with Vice President Joe Biden making a call Monday to Abadi in which he "recognized the enormous sacrifice and bravery of Iraqi forces over the past 18 months in Ramadi and elsewhere," according to a statement from the White House.

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