Iraqi forces have continued to register gains in their ongoing effort to free the city of Ramadi from militants of the so-called ’Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) takfiri group.

Iraqi forces have continued to register gains in their ongoing effort to free the city of Ramadi from militants of the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group, Iraqi military sources reported on Wednesday.

"Clashes remain ongoing between counter-terrorism forces and ISIL militants who have taken up positions only a few hundred meters from Ramadi’s local government HQ," Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, head of security in the city’s Khaldiya district, said.

Iraqi troops are now preparing to storm Ramadi’s Al-Hoz district in which the government HQ is located, Walid al-Duleimi, a colonel in the Iraqi army, told media outlets.

On Tuesday, Iraqi security forces backed by US-led coalition air power launched a major operation aimed at capturing Ramadi, the regional capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province.

They have since managed to seize two districts in the southern part of the city.
A few days before the operation, Iraqi planes dropped leaflets over the city calling on local residents to leave the area within three days.

In November, Iraqi security forces -- backed by pro-government units -- managed to establish control over roughly half of Ramadi.

In June of last year, ISIL overran Mosul -- Iraq’s second largest city -- before moving on to occupy additional territory in both Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi government forces, along with pro-government units and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, now seek to retake ISIL-held areas with air support from the US-led coalition.

Over the last year, US-led coalition warplanes have struck numerous ISIL positions in both Iraq and Syria, forcing the takfiri group to withdraw from a number of areas it had previously captured.