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Iraqi security forces on Sunday continued their battles against the Islamic State (IS) militants in the provinces of Salahudin and Anbar, as the UN warned of catastrophic impact on many thousands of people who fled their homes, security sources and a UN statement said.
In Salahudin province, the security forces and allied Shiite and Sunni militias backed by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft continued their fighting for the second day to free western part of the town of Baiji, after the troops managed on Saturday to free the eastern and the central parts of the town, a provincial security source said.
In Iraq's largest oil refinery near Baiji, the troops continued their clearing operation in the vast refinery and found 53 bodies of IS militants who were killed in the battles to liberate the refinery during the past few days, the source said.
Sporadic clashes occurred during the day in the refinery with some IS fighters who were hiding in some buildings inside the refinery, the source added.
On Saturday, Jasim Jbara, head of the security committee of Salahudin provincial council, told Xinhua that the Iraqi forces "have completely liberated the vast oil refinery of Baiji after they drove out the IS militants."
The battles of the oil refinery and the nearby Baiji were part of a large-scale operation launched Wednesday aiming to recapture areas seized by IS militants in Salahudin, particularly after the militants progressed inside the huge oil facility on Tuesday.
The battles came more than two weeks after Iraqi security forces regained control of the provincial capital city of Tikrit.
In Anbar province, the security forces and local Sunni tribesmen backed by Iraqi and international aircrafts clashed with IS militants in the city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, and managed to free part of the eastern suburb of Soufiyah after killing many of the extremist militants, a provincial security source anonymously told Xinhua.
The security situation in Ramadi deteriorated a week ago when IS militants carried out attacks and captured Albu Farraj area in northern side of Euphrates River, which separate the area from the city of Ramadi.
A few days later, the extremist militants expanded and captured more areas in eastern and central of the city.
IS advance forced dozens of thousands of families to flee their homes with little more than clothes on their backs and resorted to other cities, mainly to Baghdad and settled in predominantly Sunni districts in south and west of the capital.
A statement by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said that more than 90,000 people fled violence in Anbar and need urgent humanitarian assistance.
"Humanitarian agencies are rushing to provide assistance to more than 90,000 people fleeing clashes in Anbar. Our top priority is delivering life-saving assistance to people who are fleeing. Food, water and shelter are highest on the list of priorities," the statement quoted Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator for UNAMI, as saying.
Grande said that the humanitarian agencies are doing what they can to help civilians, "but the humanitarian operation in Iraq is severely underfunded."
The statement said that in the next weeks and months "unless funding is received, 60 percent of programs supported by humanitarian partners will be curtailed or shut-down."
It warned that the impact will be on the civilian victims of the violence, which will be "catastrophic."
According to UN figures, "at least 2.7 million Iraqis have been displaced since January 2014, including 400,000 from Anbar province, making the Iraq crisis one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the world today," the statement said.
IS has seized parts of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.
The security situation in Iraq has been drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS militants. Enditem
