Iraq’s military said on Friday its forces had advanced on three fronts to begin clearing Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants from the western city of Ramadi, but police and government officials said progress was extremely slow.The announcement by the joint operations command came as Kurdish forces declared victory over ISIS in the northern town of Sinjar, which could help build momentum in pushing back the hardline Sunni militants elsewhere.
But a suicide bomb attack in Baghdad and a second day of violence between Kurds and Shiite Turkmen further north were reminders of the ethnic and sectarian conflicts exacerbated by ISIS’s rise.
Iraqi forces appeared better positioned than ever this week to launch an offensive on Ramadi, 100 km (60 km) west of Baghdad, now that months-long efforts to cut off supply lines to the city are having an effect.
The city’s fall to ISIS in May was the biggest defeat for Iraq’s weak central government in nearly a year, dampening its hopes of quickly routing the insurgents from the country’s north and west.
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