CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh travelled to Ramadi, Iraq – the first time a Western TV crew has been taken to the town where soldiers and militias, both Sunni and Shia, are said to be massing to fight ISIS.
The CNN team was taken to an Iraqi army positioned on the front line, along the banks of a river, between ISIS towns of Ramadi and Fallujah, where ISIS had blocked a dam upstream to lower the tide and enable them to attack.
Major General Khjalil el Abadi of the Iraqi army told CNN that his soldiers see and watch ISIS daily, but are overlooked by coalition air strikes. “They’re supposed to give us some support now from war planes. We’re in control of the ground; all we need is air support.”
The CNN crew and its military escort then came under fire from ISIS positions, forcing them to leave the area.
