Iraqi Shiite militias vow to take back Ramadi from ‘barbaric’ ISIS

Iraq security forces withdraw from Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Sunday, May 17, 2015. (AP Photo)

Iraq’s Shiite militias have vowed to dislodge Islamic State extremists from Ramadi, a day after the militant group seized the Anbar provincial capital in major loss to the Iraqi troops.

Youssef al-Kilabi, a spokesman for the Shiite militias fighting alongside Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s forces, told The Associated Press on Monday that the paramilitary forces have drawn up plans for a Ramadi offensive in cooperation with the government security forces.

Al-Kilabai says they will “eliminate the barbaric enemy,” and that they will “achieve this triumph and we will not accept anything less than that.”

He did not elaborate.

Thousands of Shiites militiamen answered a call from the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to take up the fight after IS blitzed through northern and western Iraq last June.

Source:: Indian Express