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

Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have volunteered to join the army to defend the country from the militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.

In another incident, scores of terrorists have been killed and wounded in air strikes targeting militant hideouts near al-Anbar province customs building, Iraq's Anti-terrorist Organization says.

Soldiers of the Iraqi army have been engaged in heavy fighting with the terrorists on different fronts and have so far been able to push back the ISIL militants in several areas.

RA/SHI