º£½Ç´óÉñ

The so-called Islamic State attacked villages on the outskirts of Ramadi in apparent preparation for an attempt to take full control of the last population center outside its hands in Iraq's westernmost province.

The provincial government has been under siege in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, since the start of 2014, and most of the province is now outside of government hands. CNN quotes Anbar Provincial Council member Falih Essawi as saying the central government's grip is slipping, with an IS (also known as ISIS) effort to cut off the city from Baghdad to the east underway.

Yesterday, the US-led air campaign against IS in Iraq and Syria – called "Operation Inherent Resolve" – carried out a series of strikes around the oil refining town of Baiji to help government positions. Baiji is the next major town north of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein that Iraqi government forces retook from IS earlier this month. It lies about midway between Baghdad and Mosul, the northern city that IS has held since last summer.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley said in a statement that "coalition strike and reconnaissance assets directly supported Iraqi Security Force's operations in Bayji with seven dynamic airstrikes. The ISF, enabled by the coalition, continues to deny ISIL small unit attacks and maintained their positions within the Bayji Oil Refinery."

The statement said the airstrikes in Baiji hit three IS tactical units, a suicide car-bomber that had not yet reached its target, and 12 buildings under the group's control. There were also three airstrikes around Fallujah yesterday, a strike on an IS building in Mosul, and strikes on IS  soldiers around Ramadi.

In March, reporter David Enders spent a few days in Ramadi and described a situation of nominal government control in the center of town. In his time there he saw fluid lines of control and constant probing attacks on government lines by suicide bombers.

This casualty rate is telling: Before the war, Ramadi was home to about 200,000 people, out of a total population of 33 million. The US lost 4,489 soldiers during more than a decade of fighting across Iraq. And the deaths of the Iraqi security forces were preceded by a year-long IS assassination campaign of tribal leaders and families who had sided with the government.

In Mr. Ender's short film on his trip to Ramadi, he interviewed refugees fleeing from the Anbar city of Fallujah – where US forces fought two major battles against jihadi insurgents – and they told him the town was completely in the insurgent group's hands.

Yesterday, during Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's visit to Washington, the US said that roughly 25 to 30 percent of territory captured inside Iraq by IS has since been retaken during Inherent Resolve.

But gains are by no means assured, and IS continues to show plenty of fight. The Associated Press describes a difficult situation around Ramadi.