ISIS is advancing against the strategically important town of Hit, in Anbar Province, but local tribal militias aligned with the government denied reports from ISIS that the town has been overrun completely.
Iraqi state media reported ISIS has seized the town’s police station as well as the mayor’s office, but the tribal fighters say that the battle is ongoing, and that ISIS can’t move freely inside the town.
Just northwest of Ramadi, Hit is along the main highway leading to Haditha, and Haditha Dam has been an important target for ISIS in recent months. The loss of the town would give them another route through which to target the dam.
Though ISIS controls the majority of the Anbar Province, several individual towns have remained independent. If they stay that way, ISIS may find the Iraqi military trying to use them as staging grounds in the fight to retake the area.