Iraqi Elite Troops Still Engaged in Street Fighting in Ramadi

Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told a Pentagon teleconference that elite Iraqi Counter-Terror Service forces (CTS) are still bogged down in street-fighting to clear the city of Ramadi.

"The CTS, or Counter-Terror Service, continued clearing south and east through the city center," Warren said on Thursday. "They’ve cleared the Grand Mosque, the al-Haq Mosque, the agricultural college, the industrial center and the Malab soccer stadium. "

"The Iraqi army had advanced nearly five kilometers and cleared the security service building — all this done with the support of 28 coalition airstrikes over the last week, but the CTS troops we reshowing signs of exhaustion," Warren admitted.

Elite forces in a time of war, he noted, are not immune to becoming tired. "That’s how it is," Warren added.

The main Iraqi army’s 8th Division was now engaged in clearing operations from the southeastern corner of Ramadi north and west, and the Iraqi 7th Army Division provided the bulk of the combat power in Barwani, Warren concluded.