article_snippet.sent: Iraqi army: Iraqi army is embroiled in a fierce battle to reconquer the Anbar province .
article_snippet.sent: Iraqi armyis embroiled in a fierce battle to reconquer the western province, which has been under ISIS control for the past year.
article_snippet.sent: Fighting has been focused on the provincial capital of Ramadi, where the government had been making slow progress.
article_snippet.sent: Earlier on Friday, Iraqi army recaptured the important al-Houz bridge over the Euphrates in western Ramadi, which had served as a primary supply route for militants, according to police Colonel Mahdi Abbas.
article_snippet.sent: The security situation in Ramadi sharply deteriorated after the terrorists seized three villages around Ramadi, forcing an estimated 100,000 to flee three villages homes.
article_snippet.sent: Many had started to return in the past few days because Iraqi soldiers and police have been able to secure the centre of Ramadi and push militants back from some areas of Ramadi.
article_snippet.sent: Many Iraqis blame the rivalries among the country's political leadership for the humiliating defeat suffered by government forces in the past year at the hands of the Islamic State militants that control large sections of the north and west of the country.