Iraq announces operation to drive Islamic State from Anbar

A group monitoring the war said Islamic State blew up a major prison complex in the central Syrian city of Palmyra.

The prison was empty at the time of the detonation, said Rami Abdulrahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The sprawling complex is not located among the city's ancient ruins. Islamic State captured the city, also known as Tadmur, from government forces earlier this month.

Government officials have confirmed British military "extensive air and training support" to Iraqi forces fighting Islamic State insurgents.

They outlined a number of recent airstrikes including:

• May 19 A Reaper aircraft and two Tornado GR4s patrolling northern Iraq attacked a number of bunkers with Hellfire missiles and Paveway precision bombs
• May 20 Tornados struck a weapons store, a weapons cache in a tunnel and a camouflaged position (video above)
• May 22 A Reaper successfully engaged terrorists burying improvised explosive devices next to a road
• May 24 Islamic State armoured vehicle, buildings and bulldozer packed with explosives destroyed

Iraq has formally announced the beginning of a military operation to liberate the western province of Anbar from Islamic State insurgents.

Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for the Shi'ite paramilitaries known as Hashid Shaabi, which are are taking part, said in a news conference broadcast on the state TV channel that the operation had been named "Labeyk Ya Hussein".

The Iraqi government is scrambling to reverse its biggest military setback in nearly a year, the fall of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad. Prime Minister Haidar Abadi has vowed to recapture it within days.

Iraqi forces are set to launch an offensive to drive Islamic State out of Anbar province.

The start of the operation - backed by Shi'ite and Sunni forces - was announced on state television, although no further details were given.

IS seized large parts of Anbar in early 2014 and militants recently captured the provincial capital Ramadi.

Iraq's prime minister said yesterday that he was confident his troops would retake Ramadi "in days".

• Rageh Omaar: Fall of Ramadi opens up worrying problem

Iraqi forces will retake the city of Ramadi from Islamic State militants "in days", the country's prime minister has said.

Thousands of civilians fled the city, which lies around 78 miles from Baghdad, after insurgents seized control.

"It makes my heart bleed because we lost Ramadi, but I can assure you we can bring it back soon," Haider al-Abadi told the BBC.

He defended the Iraqi military amid criticism from US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, saying they were overwhelmed by the "onslaught" of IS.

"They have the will to fight but when they are faced with an onslaught by Daesh [IS] from nowhere, with armoured trucks packed with explosives, the effect of them is like a small nuclear bomb - it gives a very, very bad effect on our forces."

• Read: The British suicide bomber who helped IS take Ramadi

Iraqi forces have retaken ground from so-called Islamic State militants in Iraq advancing towards the western city of Ramadi one week after it fell to the insurgents.

An eyewitness and a local official have said a convoy of Shi'ite militia fighters and Iraqi army forces set out from a base near the western provincial capital of Ramadi, heading towards areas controlled by Islamic State militants.

Anbar provincial council member Azzal Obaid said hundreds of fighters, who arrived at the Habbaniya air base last week after Ramadi was overrun by Islamic State, were in Khalidiya and were approaching Siddiqiya and Madiq, towns in contested areas near Ramadi.

While pro-government forces are seeking to retake Ramadi, Islamic State insurgents have been pushing forward in the direction of Fallujah in a bid to take more territory in Anbar province that would bring them closer to the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

A White House official has said that the US-led coalition will support the multisectarian ground force in Iraq in its effort to take back the city of Ramadi from Islamic State fighters.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it is important for the force to have control and be in command of Iraq.

Thousands of Iraqis have streamed out of the city of Ramadi - from the self styled Islamic State forces who took control yesterday.

Among the refugees, the patients of what is now a deserted hospital. Islamic State territory in Syria and Iraq has, since yesterday, been extended to include Ramadi which is just eighty miles to the west of Baghdad, Iraq's capital. It was the biggest defeat for Iraq's army since last summer. Once again the group used little children as propaganda in victory parades.

ITV News International affairs editor Rageh Omaar reports:

The United Nations has said that close to 25,000 people have fled the Iraqi city of Ramadi after an Islamic state attack. Funds to help them were running out and aid stocks were almost gone, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Iraq said.

Some 3,000 Shi'ite militia fighters have arrived at a military base near Ramadi as Baghdad moved to retake the western Iraqi city that fell to Islamic State militants at the weekend in the biggest defeat for the government since mid-2014.

Earlier Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Islamic State's gains in Ramadi were setback for Iraqi security forces, but such setbacks were "regrettable but not uncommon in warfare".

"Much effort will now be required to reclaim the city," he added.