ISIL fighters close in on major Iraqi airbase

Group takes control of parts of al-Baghdadi in the country's west, near base where US troops are training Iraqi forces. 

 

ISIL fighters took control of large parts of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, threatening an airbase where US Marines are training Iraqi troops, officials said.
Al-Baghdadi, about 85km northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province, has been besieged for months by the group, which captured vast swaths of northern and western Iraq last year.
ISIL attacked al-Baghdadi from two directions on Thursday and then advanced on the town, intelligence sources and officials in the Jazeera and Badiya operations commands said.
The officials said another group of fighters then attacked the heavily-guarded Ain al-Asad airbase 5km southwest of the town, but were unable to break into it, the Reuters news agency reported.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said: "We've seen this tactic by ISIL time and time again. Every time they want to attack an Iraqi army base - this would be the first coalition base - they first take the towns surrounding it."
"ISIL know the area very well and this will be a considerable challenge for the Americans, although they will be aided by their ability to call in air strikes quickly."
Control of al-Baghdadi
About 320 US Marines are training members of the Iraqi 7th Division at the base, which has been struck by mortar fire on at least one previous occasion since December.
Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Commander Elissa Smith confirmed there was "heavy fighting" in al-Baghdadi.
She said there had been no direct attack on the airbase, but added: "There were reports of ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base."
District manager Naji Arak confirmed that ISIL fighters had entered al-Baghdadi and attacked some government buildings.
He initially estimated the fighters had taken 90 percent of the town but later said he could not confirm the extent of the group's control as intermittent clashes continued into the early morning.
The death toll from the fighting was not immediately clear.
Most of the surrounding towns in Anbar were taken by ISIL during the group's rapid advance across the Syrian border last summer.
Elsewhere in Iraq, five civilians were killed when bombs went off in two towns south of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.