Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Wednesday for Anbar residents to "take a stand" against anti-government militiamen, as the UN warned of worsening displacement.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Wednesday for Anbar residents to "take a stand" against anti-government militiamen to whom he referred as 'gangs', as the UN warned of worsening displacement.
His call came as government forces pressed an offensive against militants, including those affiliated with the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, who overran parts of the Anbar provincial capital Ramadi weeks ago.
"I ask the people of the province -- the tribes, the notables, and all who live there -- to be ready to take a stand, to take serious action against those dirty people, without making any sacrifices," Maliki said in his weekly televised address.
He added, referring to Fallujah, another city in Anbar that is entirely in the control of anti-government terrorists: "It is time to finish this subject, and end the presence of gangs in this city, and save the people from their evil."
Parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, both former insurgent bastions in Anbar west of Baghdad, have been in the hands of militants for weeks.
Soldiers, policemen and SWAT forces have combined with pro-government tribal allies in an offensive that continued Wednesday against gunmen holding several neighborhoods of Ramadi.
The army said in a statement that 13 militants were killed in firefights there.
In Fallujah, meanwhile, shelling in southern and central neighborhoods left five people wounded on Wednesday, a medic said.
Iraqi security forces, meanwhile, have recruited their own tribal allies to fight alongside them.
Violence elsewhere in the country left eight people dead, security and medical officials said.
The deadliest incident occurred in Baghdad's western outskirts, where three mortar shells slammed into a residential neighborhood, killing at least three people.
Attacks in and around the restive cities of Mosul, Tikrit and Kirkuk killed five others in all.
