IS has continued to release information about the losses of the Iraqi army - the force besieging the strategic city of Ramadi. However, military experts predict that these will be the last propaganda messages from IS broadcast from this place.

Iraqi troops use a pontoon bridge to enter the city center of Ramadi. Photo: Twitter

On December 24, the Islamic State (IS) militants suddenly broke the mysterious silence of the past three days - since the Iraqi army surrounded the strategic city of Ramadi and prepared to launch the final blow - by issuing a series of statements that the group had launched a series of counterattacks "causing heavy damage" to Iraqi government forces around the city, according to the NYTimes.

In a dispatch stamped "urgent" by IS published on social media, the militants announced that they had dispatched a five-member suicide bomber squad to ambush Iraqi police forces at a base identified as the command post of the 2nd Regiment of the Federal Police.

Another IS statement said the group used suicide bombs and booby traps hidden in the building to kill more than 30 Iraqi soldiers, according to SITE Intelligence, an organization that studies jihadist messages on the internet.

According to analysts, when piecing together the messages that IS continuously released yesterday after many days of silence, they can see that this is a last-ditch effort by the group to impress the world that IS can still cause heavy damage to Iraqi security forces besieging Ramadi.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, which is predominantly Sunni. IS captured Ramadi in a swift offensive in May, turning the city into one of its strongholds in Iraq, where the militants enjoy considerable support from many local Sunnis. Losing Ramadi would be a major setback for IS, especially since the militants have been forced to withdraw from large areas of Iraq over the past year.

Gassan al-Ethawi, spokesman for the Anbar tribal militia that is coordinating with government forces to besiege Ramadi, said IS launched an attack on Iraqi police last night. The militants opened the attack by pouring mortar shells into police positions, then sent six suicide bombers to try to approach their targets. However, Iraqi police successfully stopped the attack, killing the gunmen from a distance and only four police officers were injured.

IS has also claimed on social media that it killed many members of the Shiite militias that took part in the Ramadi offensive. Iraqi government officials have denied this claim, insisting that Shiite militias were not involved in the Ramadi offensive, which included army, police, and Sunni tribal fighters.

According to commentator Rukmini Callimachi, the Iraqi government's mobilization of these forces to participate in the campaign to attack Ramadi was carefully considered. By not allowing Shiite militias operating under the name of "general mobilization forces" to participate in the siege of Ramadi, the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi wanted to prevent a revenge massacre by Shiites against native Sunnis, avoiding the risk of deepening ethnic conflicts in Iraq.

Yesterday, Iraqi MP Dhafir al-Aani praised the government's decision, saying it had helped the battle for Ramadi "remove any trace of ethnic cleansing". He said revenge attacks by Shiite militias against Sunnis in many parts of the country had "ruined the taste of victory" over IS.

The Iraqi army had great difficulty advancing against IS traps and sniper fire. Photo: Newsweek

Only foreign fighters remain in Ramadi.

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Muhammad Hainour, governor of Anbar province, said that after receiving warning leaflets from the Iraqi army, many Sunni Iraqis who had cooperated and fought for IS in Ramadi fled the city, and the 300 IS gunmen currently entrenched in Ramadi are all foreign fighters.

"All the Iraqis who helped and directly fought for IS in Ramadi have fled, all those who remained in the city center were foreign fighters recruited by IS," Mr. Hainour affirmed.

The official said the foreign fighters were taking men hostage in Ramadi, and had threatened to kill any family members who left the city. The Iraqi government estimates that at least 10,000 civilians remain trapped inside the city.

In addition to using civilians as human shields, IS also densely placed mines and explosive traps on every street corner and in every house to prevent the advance of the Iraqi army. Large explosives are very sophisticatedly placed behind doors or strung with transparent wire in the hallway, which can explode and collapse the whole house when someone walks through.

According to the Mirror, IS also built complex explosive traps with two detonators inside the houses. The first detonator was connected by an electric wire and hidden under the carpet, which could trigger the bomb when someone stepped on it. The Iraqi army quickly discovered this trick and tried to follow the electric wires to find the bomb in each house, but they did not expect that underneath the bomb was a second detonator, which would trigger when the bomb was lifted, causing a huge explosion.

IS militants are believed to be holed up inside the government building in central Ramadi, preparing numerous car bombs ready to plow into government forces, and placing snipers in high-risk positions. This has significantly hampered the advance of Iraqi security forces.

Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq, said the Ramadi offensive was unlikely to be completed before Christmas as they had predicted. "There is still a long way to go before we can declare Ramadi free of IS. There are still many complex areas that need to be looked at," he said.

In order to provide maximum support to the Iraqi army in the campaign to attack Ramadi, the US military decided to use B-1 bombers instead of the traditional A-10 attack aircraft. "We mobilized B-1 to participate in this battle, and when we discovered any obstacle, we would drop bombs to neutralize it," said Colonel Warren.

The B-1 is an American supersonic strategic bomber, with a longer endurance and more precision weapons than the A-10. Each B-1 can carry more than 38 tons of conventional bombs, operate for 10 hours continuously without refueling in the air, and can provide very effective fire support for ground forces.

US B-1 supersonic strategic bomber. Photo: USAF

According to military analysts, the reason the US chose the B-1 to replace the A-10 in the battle of Ramadi is because the B-1 uses much more precise weapons than the A-10 Thunder. The US government is currently very concerned about the risk of causing civilian casualties in the fight against IS, and avoids using weapons that can cause collateral damage to people in urban environments.

Ismael al-Mihlawi, commander of the Ramadi offensive, said his troops were focused on defuse explosive devices planted by IS so they could advance into the center of Ramadi as quickly as possible. "We are on track, according to plan. Ramadi will be liberated soon, and IS is dying," he said.

According to VNE