Maliki Firm in Fighting Terrorism: more Troops Head to Anbar

Local Editor

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday reversed a decision to withdraw soldiers from Anbar cities and ordered reinforcements to the province to tackle attacks by al-Qaeda militants.

Clashes broke out in Anbar, west of Baghdad, as security forces tore down a year-old al-Qaeda supporters' camp outside the provincial capital Ramadi on Monday.

On Wednesday, militants torched police stations both in Anbar and in Ramadi.
"We will not withdraw the army" and "we will send additional forces," Iraqiya state television quoted Maliki as saying in response to what it said were requests from residents and the provincial government.
The deadliest fighting took place on Monday, when 10 people were killed in the Ramadi area, but the violence has continued.

On Wednesday, gunmen attacked the main police station in Fallujah and ordered its staff to leave, before raiding its armory and freeing 101 prisoners from its cells, police said.

Other police stations in the city were torched by militants as most police abandoned their posts.

In Ramadi, farther west, security forces clashed sporadically with militants, who burned four police stations and two military vehicles.
Pictures posted online and said to have been taken in Ramadi showed al-Qaeda driving a police Humvee decked with a black flag of the sort often flown by Takfiris.

The removal of the protest camp was a victory of sorts for Maliki, who had long wanted it gone and had termed it a "headquarters for the leadership of al-Qaeda".
Areas outside Anbar were also hit by violence on Wednesday.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint, killing a civilian and four soldiers, three of them officers, and wounding 11 people.
In Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, militants attacked a police station, killing at least two police and wounding three.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team