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Iraq sending 4,000 volunteers to help in Ramadi

An Iraqi Shiite fighter chants slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State group during Friday prayers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2014. The Sunni militant blitz led by the Islamic State extremist group has effectively cleaved the country along ethnic and sectarian lines — the swath of militant-held Sunni areas, the Shiite-majority south and center ruled by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and the Kurdish north. (AP Photo) An Iraqi Shiite fighter chants slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State group during Friday prayers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 11, 2014. The Sunni militant blitz led by the Islamic State extremist group has effectively cleaved the country along ethnic and sectarian lines — the swath of militant-held Sunni areas, the Shiite-majority south and center ruled by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and the Kurdish north. (AP Photo)

By Associated Press July 12, 2014 1 min read

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi authorities say some 4,000 volunteers are being dispatched to an embattled city west of Baghdad to help bolster government forces fighting Sunni militants there.

Gen. Rasheed Flayeh, the commander of operations in Anbar province, says 2,500 of the reinforcements arrived Friday in Ramadi, and the rest are expected to arrive Saturday.

The vast majority of volunteers are Shiite who answered a call from the country’s top Shiite cleric to defend the country from the militants have seized control of much of northern and western Iraq.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, a predominantly Sunni province and one of the most active fronts in Iraq. Militants overran parts of Ramadi early this year before the government reasserted its control.