Iraqi security forces have made advances on two fronts in the city of Ramadi, clearing ISIS militants from a key military command base and a sprawling neighborhood on its western edge, army officials said. Capture of the sprawling western Ramadi district of Taamim and the Anbar Operations Command headquarters Wednesday could advance government efforts to retake Ramadi which fell to ISIS in May. "Army troops and counterterrorism forces launched simultaneous offensives from the northern and western fronts and succeeded in making a striking advance," joint operations spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters. The center of Ramadi remains under ISIS control, but Rasool said the militants, which Iraqi intelligence estimates number between 250 and 300 fighters, are losing the initiative and suffering food and ammunition shortages after government forces cut their last supply line into the city last month. "We can hear their radio call we intercepted complaining about lack of food and ammunition," Rasool said. "It's quite clear they are desperate and collapsing." During the day, ISIS destroyed a lock on the Euphrates River that served as a bridge in Ramadi. Iraqi Maj Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, the head of military operations in the western Anbar province, said the lock destroyed Thursday was the last remaining bridge from the city center to the northwest. "Daesh forces trying to stop our progress bombed the last bridge which connects the city center." Col. Steven Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, said the destruction of the bridge may prove to be a tactical mistake for ISIS. "What they've also done now is they've really cut themselves off," he said. "So the fighters left on the north side of the river can't retreat and the fighters on the south side of the river can't send reinforcements." Muhannad Haimour, spokesman for the Anbar governor's office, said he received reports from residents still inside Ramadi that ISIS was also destroying buildings and radio towers. "We've seen this before; they tend to blow up not just bridges, but a lot of infrastructure inside the city." In a statement, the U.S.-led coalition said six airstrikes targeted ISIS units, boats and fighting positions near Ramadi Wednesday. Over the past week coalition planes have launched 36 strikes near Ramadi. The fall of Ramadi in May was the biggest defeat for Iraq's weak central government in nearly a year, dampening its hopes of routing the militants from the north and west. The Anbar Operations Command complex and Taamim neighborhood retaken by counter-terrorism forces are strategically significant because they overlook other parts of Ramadi which are still under the militants' control, Rasool and another spokesman for the counterterrorism forces said. "Retaking Taamim after a striking offensive prevented terrorists from evacuating large stockpiles of ammunition which they left behind. It's a severe blow to their morale," said Sabah al-Numani, spokesman for Iraqi counterterrorism forces.
