Popular Mobilization Forces

Iraq's plan to recapture the western city of Ramadi from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists will dominate a meeting June 2 in Paris of foreign ministers from the international coalition fighting the group, a senior US official said.

Iraqi forces closed in on Ramadi May 26 and launched an operation aimed at cutting off the jihadists in Anbar province before a major offensive to retake the city.

Shiite militias converged on Ramadi May 18 in a bid to recapture it from jihadists who dealt the Iraqi government a stinging blow by overrunning the city in a deadly three-day blitz.

Iraqi ground forces secured the perimeter around the country?s biggest oil refinery on April 18 and entered the vast complex amid heavy clashes with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, said a senior Iraqi military official.
                   

Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said March 31.
      

Iraqi commanders were plotting a strategy for flushing out the few remaining Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from central Tikrit, a city one commander said on March 14 would be liberated within three days.

Iraqi forces entered a northern neighbourhood of Tikrit March 11, marking a new stage in the operation launched 10 days ago to wrest the city back from jihadists, army officers said.
      
"We are now doing combat missions to cleanse the neighbourhood of Qadisiyah," a major general told AFP on condition of anonymity.        

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) executed 20 people who wanted to fight against them in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, officials said on March 9.
      

Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia backed by aircraft pounded jihadists in and around Tikrit in the biggest offensive yet to retake one of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s main strongholds.