![The UN says at least 4,000 families have fled Ramadi due to the ongoing fighting between ISIL and Iraqi forces [Reuters]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u0lQqxGCf8B8_2ZDXSjWl3_49Ui0GT86A_VS0PBCKFgBWMcmZ7M9HbJKQR-lrLZIdxu4tswcYY5itb7TdqwOGR5OXqRQxNsjr30c6Le4TvdEkLSaEAPtJpqJde66MGjClsh6zaaDTbllXOwcWmgVC1hN7gHxFeZexH0Pjj4oIVC-4HMqacUi8m6w3g1B6RDdbJsTMsTEPvMpC1=s0-d "Fighting in Iraq's Ramadi displaces thousands")
Thousands
of families continue to flee the Iraqi city of Ramadi as the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group closes in on the capital of
Anbar province, clashing with Iraqi troops.
The UN has announced that more than 4,000 families fled Ramadi and its suburbs in the past few days due to the ongoing clashes between ISIL and Iraqi forces, which has turned the city into a ghost town.
The UN also confirmed on Wednesday deaths among those trying to flee - including new-born babies - due to the lack of proper necessities and harsh conditions. Families have left their homes with little or nothing on their backs.
ISIL has controlled the nearby city of Fallujah for more than a year,
and captured three villages on Ramadi's eastern outskirts on Wednesday.
Iraqi special forces were still in control of Ramadi on Friday, after days of intense clashes, according to a special forces commander in Anbar, who said the situation had improved after air strikes hit key ISIL targets on the city's fringes.
The previous day, an official of the Ministry of Migration and the Displaced said that more than 2,000 fleeing Ramadi residents were settling in the southern and western suburbs of Baghdad, and tents, food and other aid were being sent to them.
In another development, Kurdish peshmerga forces have recaptured two
villages just south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk that lie near the
highway linking it to Baghdad, according to a senior official of the PUK
political party.
A peshmerga soldier said Kurdish forces were using the recaptured villages of Aziriyah and Atshana as their base to push back ISIL from the rest of the region.
Kurdish forces have been battling to retake villages and districts seized by the fighters since last summer.
The peshmerga is the fighting force of the largely autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
The ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, located approximately 250km north of Baghdad, is regarded by Kurds as part of their ancestral homeland.
Iraqi soldiers surrounded and entered the country's biggest oil refinery on Saturday, which has been besieged for days by ISIL fighters, a senior official said.
The UN has announced that more than 4,000 families fled Ramadi and its suburbs in the past few days due to the ongoing clashes between ISIL and Iraqi forces, which has turned the city into a ghost town.
The UN also confirmed on Wednesday deaths among those trying to flee - including new-born babies - due to the lack of proper necessities and harsh conditions. Families have left their homes with little or nothing on their backs.
 |
Iraqi special forces were still in control of Ramadi on Friday, after days of intense clashes, according to a special forces commander in Anbar, who said the situation had improved after air strikes hit key ISIL targets on the city's fringes.
The previous day, an official of the Ministry of Migration and the Displaced said that more than 2,000 fleeing Ramadi residents were settling in the southern and western suburbs of Baghdad, and tents, food and other aid were being sent to them.
 |
| Thousands of people from Ramadi are pouring into Baghdad to escape the ongoing fighting in between Iraqi security forces and ISIL [AP] |
A peshmerga soldier said Kurdish forces were using the recaptured villages of Aziriyah and Atshana as their base to push back ISIL from the rest of the region.
Kurdish forces have been battling to retake villages and districts seized by the fighters since last summer.
The peshmerga is the fighting force of the largely autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
The ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, located approximately 250km north of Baghdad, is regarded by Kurds as part of their ancestral homeland.
Iraqi soldiers surrounded and entered the country's biggest oil refinery on Saturday, which has been besieged for days by ISIL fighters, a senior official said.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies