Efforts to retake Ramadi from IS

IS militants are thought to have killed up to 500 people — Iraqi civilians and soldiers — and forced 8,000 to flee from their homes as they captured the city of Ramadi, a provincial official said.

A column of 3,000 Shi’ite militia fighters arrived at a military base near Ramadi as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that has fallen to IS militants in the biggest defeat for the government since mid-2014.

Setting the stage for renewed fighting over the city, IS militants advanced in armoured vehicles from Ramadi towards the base where the Shi’ite paramilitaries were massing for a counter-offensive, witnesses and a military officer said.