The US-led coalition was bombing jihadist positions in Iraq and Syria on Friday night in a desperate attempt to stop the group expanding on recent gains and overrunning a major military base.
Fighters defending the Habbaniyah base on the road from the Iraqi city of Ramadi, captured by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) on Sunday, said they were fast coming to the end of their ammunition.
The base is a gathering point for Shia militia and regular troops who were supposed to be massing there for an attack to retake Ramadi, the strategically important capital of majority-Sunni Anbar province.
Instead, Isil consolidated its position in the city before heading east, taking the town of Husseiba on the road to Habbaniyah.
The United States has been criticised for not doing enough to stop the latest Isil surge – in particular, bombing its columns of reinforcements in both battles. But on Friday night, officials in Washington said the US-led coalition had conducted 20 air raids against the group in the previous 24 hours, in both Syria and Iraq.
Five out of 15 air strikes in Iraq were on positions close to Ramadi, a statement said, and "destroyed Islamic State armoured vehicles, tanks, personnel carriers and improvised explosive devices". One hit a unit of fighters.
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An image allegedly showing a damaged Syrian military helicopters at Palmyra air base after it was captured by Isil militants
However, there were also claims that one bomb accidentally hit a column of Hashed al-Sha'abi paramilitaries – the Popular Mobilisation Units, as the umbrella group for locally raised, mostly Shia militias is formally known.
Isil's startling victories in Ramadi, after an 18-month battle for control, and Palmyra in neighbouring Syria, after a lightning advance, have sent shock waves through both countries and the Washington political and military establishment.
Isil have released photos of their black flag flying over the 13th century Palmyra Castle in SyriaIn Syria, monitors estimated that Isil now control half of the country's entire land mass – though much of its territory is desert.
Following its capture of Palmyra, with its historic ruins, Isil chased regime troops west down the road to Homs, as well as hunting pro-regime fighters and soldiers hiding in the city itself. Up to 280 were killed on Thursday and Friday, according to media activists in the city, with the bodies of 150 left in the streets as a warning.
Isil also seized nearby gas fields.
The regime is also reeling from the loss of territory to non-Isil but often hardline Islamist rebels in the north-west and south.
An image allegedly showing a damaged Syrian military helicopters at Palmyra air base after it was captured by Isil militantsIn Jisr al-Shugur, a town in Idlib, a rebel group led partly by Jabhat al-Nusra, the local al-Qaeda affiliate which split from Isil took the hospital that was the last holdout of regime troops.
Photographs captured the regime soldiers who had been surrounded for weeks making a run for it. Syrian state media said they had been "liberated" but Jabhat al-Nusra said many were shot as they fled.
In Iraq, President Barack Obama has insisted that he will continue to rely on the Iraqi Security Forces regrouping and defeating Isil, though he accepted in an interview on Thursday that it would take "years".
Three Isil fighters pose in Ramadi after the Iraqi army 'abandoned' the cityHowever, if Isil manages to consolidate its hold on Anbar, it will have a unified hold of a large Sunni area covering half of Syria and a large part of Iraq, stretching to a few miles from the Baghdad security perimeter.
The conventional wisdom is that it will not try to launch a direct assault on the city, now largely Shia, but it will be able to launch suicide bombings and other attacks with virtual impunity.
Its success will also discourage Sunnis fighters, many of whom have up to now stayed loyal to Baghdad despite a dislike of its Shia-led government, from fighting Isil – the very tactic on which the West's strategy of "no boots on the ground" intervention depends.
Habbaniyah: Colonial past of battleground
By a quirk of history, the airbase where the Iraqi Security Forces and allied Shia militia are gathering prior to attempts to retake the city of Ramadi from Isil is the birthplace of scores of British and Commonwealth citizens.
The Habbaniyah base east of Ramadi began life as RAF Dhibban, and dates from the time when Britain was the unwelcome colonial power in the country. Opened in 1936, and unofficially called “Second London”, it acquired its current name in 1938, and remained a major British base until troops were withdrawn following the coup that overthrew the British-backed monarchy 20 years later. Photographs show a neat settlement with lawns and drives, its own school, racecourse and even its own fox hunt.
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موضوع: May 23, 2015 US launches desperate air strikes to save Iraqi base 
الأحد 24 مايو 2015 - 20:24
