Iraqi city of Ramadi falls to ISIS militants

(Vatican Radio, agencies) Some 500 people including civilians and Iraqi soldiers are believed to have been killed over the past few days in fighting in the Iraqi city of Ramadi which has fallen to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) group.

ISIS seized control of the Anbar provincial capital on Sunday, sending Iraqi forces fleeing in a major loss despite the support of U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the extremists.  With defeat looming, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered security forces not to abandon their posts across Anbar province.

Local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians.

Officials estimate some 8,000 residents have fled the most recent fighting.   The U.N. says as many as 114,000 residents have fled from Ramadi and surrounding villages since April.

The final IS push to take Ramadi began early Sunday with four nearly simultaneous bombings that targeted police officers defending the Malaab district in southern Ramadi, a pocket of the city still under Iraqi government control.  At least 10 police were killed and 15 wounded, officials said. Later, three suicide bombers drove their explosive-laden cars into the gate of the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province, killing at least five soldiers and wounding 12, the officials said.

The extremists later seized Malaab after government forces withdrew, with the militants saying they controlled the military headquarters.  Retreating Iraqi forces left behind army vehicles and weapons. 

Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have made gains against the Islamic State group elsewhere, including capturing the northern city of Tikrit.

But progress has been slow in Anbar, a Sunni province where anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep and where U.S. forces struggled for years to beat back a potent insurgency. American soldiers fought some of their bloodiest battles since Vietnam on the streets of Ramadi and Fallujah.