article_snippet.sent: West of Baghdad, Iraq
article_snippet.sent: (CNN)The call from Faleh Essawi, the deputy chief of the provincial council, who we were supposed to be meeting up with, came just as we were about to hit the bridge -- the only safe route from Baghdad to neighboring Anbar province.
article_snippet.sent: ISIS has taken the east of Baghdad, it's not accessible," ISIS says, sounding frantic, rapidly rattling off the neighborhoods and areas ISIS fighters had just stormed into.
article_snippet.sent: Cars are not permitted to cross the bridge -- the only safe route from Baghdad to neighboring Anbar province across the Euphrates.
article_snippet.sent: The government feels that restricting vehicles will decrease the likelihood of explosives making their way into Iraq's capital.
article_snippet.sent: ISIS had already blocked off access from the south months ago, and west of Baghdad was contested territory.  
article_snippet.sent: The east, until now, was not just a relatively safe zone but the only viable entrance and exit.
article_snippet.sent: Security is collapsing in Baghdad," a hospital in Amriyat al-Falluja, about a 15-minute drive away, a wounded local fighter winces in pain screams.
article_snippet.sent: This is what we warned Baghdad would happen.
article_snippet.sent: I consider Baghdad to have fallen.
highlights_snippet.sent: Officials there say the Iraqi government is failing to protect Officials there .
  