Islamic State take over another Iraqi city

The city of Hit, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, has fallen to the Islamic State (IS) following weeks of fighting, according to security sources. Hundreds of Iraqi army troops were withdrawn from the city and relocated to the Asad airbase, the AFP news agency quoted an Iraqi police colonel as saying.

“Hit is now 100% under ISIL control,” he said. “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.”
An Iraqi officer and Sunni fighters told Reuters news agency that Islamic State had looted three armoured vehicles and at least five tanks before setting the military camp in Heet ablaze.
The city of Asad, northwest of Hit, is one of the last cities in the Anbar province that is still under Iraqi government control. Government officials have warned that their grip on Anbar’s capital of Ramadi is being threatened by advancing Islamic State fighters.
Around 180,000 people have been displaced as a result of fighting in and around Hit, the UN office for humanitarian affairs said on Monday. The city had previously homed around 100,000 people who had already fled other areas of Iraq that had fallen to IS.
Meanwhile, IS has also been suspected of carrying out three bombings on Monday in neighbourhoods around Baghdad that resulted in the death of dozens of people. Suicide attacks in Baghdad killed 45 people on Sunday.
UK foreign minister Philip Hammond said on Monday that IS 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," Hammond said. "The heavy work on the ground is going to have to be done by Iraqi forces and it is going to have been done by the Sunni communities in the areas that ISIL occupies.''