ISIL seizes several areas in Ramadi, executes 70 civilians

Iraq's al-Sumaria TV network quoted an Iraqi security source in Anbar province as saying on Friday that the terrorists executed 70 civilians, including women and children, after capturing several neighborhoods in the city.

Meanwhile, Anbar Provincial Council Chairman Sabah Karhout confirmed the ISIL’s advances in Ramadi, calling on the government in Baghdad to deploy more troops and military equipment to the war-wracked city.

The official also said that the Takfiri terrorists killed 17 relatives of the Iraqi security forces in Ramadi.

Earlier in the day, twin car bomb attacks left several Iraqi soldiers dead and injured in the center and north of the city, media reports said, adding that the terrorists also launched rocket and mortar attacks on different parts of Ramadi.

Ramadi Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi announced Friday that ISIL elements took control of government headquarters in the restive city.

ISIL "now occupies the government center in Ramadi and has also raised its flag over the police HQ for Anbar," an unnamed Iraqi police major told AFP.

This is while Baghdad stressed that Ramadi has not totally fallen in the hands of ISIL terrorists, saying that the Iraqi troops have initiated a major counter-offensive to flush Takfiris out of the city.

Following the recent developments in the strategic city, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called an emergency meeting with the country’s high-ranking security officials, reports said.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIL started its campaign of terror in early June 2014. The terrorists are in control of the city of Mosul, the second largest city of Iraq.

Since then, Iraq’s army has been joined by Kurdish forces, and Shia and Sunni volunteers in operations to drive the ISIL terrorists out of the areas they have seized.