BAGHDAD: Thousands of Shia militiamen yesterday prepared to fight Islamic State insurgents who seized the Iraqi provincial capital Ramadi at the weekend in the biggest defeat for government forces in nearly a year.
A column of 3,000 Shia militia fighters assembled at a military base near Ramadi, preparing to take on Islamic State militants advancing in armoured vehicles from the captured city northwest of Baghdad, witnesses and a military officer said.
Washington played down the significance of the loss of Ramadi, the capital of the vast western Anbar province.
REUTERS
