Iraqi city falls to ISIL as army withdraws
Hit, in Anbar province, changes hands after government forces abandon last
base in city in order to defend an airbase.
Last updated: 13 Oct 2014 22:35
Shia militias backing the Baghdad government have failed to prevent ISIL
from advancing [EPA]
The Iraqi army has withdrawn from its last base in the city of Hit, in Anbar
province, following weeks of fighting with the Islamic State in Syria and
the Levant (ISIL), leaving the self-declared jihadist group in full control,
security sources have said.
Hundreds of troops were pulled out of the base and relocated to help protect
the Asad air base, the AFP news agency quoted a police colonel in the
provincial capital of Ramadi as saying on Monday.
"Our military leaders argued that instead of leaving those forces exposed to
attacks by ISIL, they would be best used to shore up the defence of Asad
airbase," he said.
"Hit is now 100 percent under ISIL control."
Asad, northwest of Hit, is one of the last still under government control in
the western province. It is surrounded by desert and a tougher target for
ISIL fighters.
Other security officials said military aircraft picked up senior officers
from the Hit base, and the rest of the force drove in a convoy to Asad.
An Iraqi officer and Sunni militia fighters told the Reuters news agency
that ISIL looted three armoured vehicles and at least five tanks, and then
set the camp ablaze.
Government forces have suffered a series of setbacks in Anbar in recent
weeks, and officials have warned that their grip on the capital Ramadi was
increasingly tenuous.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said that ISIL's takeover
puts nearby towns including Amiri under threat.
"Amiri is a very key town, that is where the main supply line from Anbar
province into Baghdad and the rest of the south of the country goes from,"
he said.
Up to 180,000 people have been displaced by fighting in and around Hit, the
UN office for humanitarian affairs said on Monday.
The city had been home to 100,000 people who had fled other areas of Iraq
which had fallen to ISIL, it said.
During a visit to Baghdad on Monday, the British foreign minister Phillip
Hammond said ISIL would only be defeated by "heavy work on the ground" by
Iraqi forces.
''We've always understood that the air campaign alone was not going to be
decisive in turning the tide against ISIL but it has halted the ISIL advance
... and it is degrading their military capabilities and their economic
strength," he said.
"The heavy work on the ground is going to have been done by Iraqi forces and
it is going to have been done by the Sunni communities in the areas that
ISIL occupies.''
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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