Ammon News - AFP- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki paid a visit Saturday to the battleground city of Ramadi, where security forces and allied tribesmen have for weeks fought to retake militant-held areas.
During the visit, Maliki will be briefed on the progress of military operations in the Anbar provincial capital, west of Baghdad, and meet leaders of the powerful local tribes, an official from his office told AFP, without providing further details.

Jihadist militants and anti-government tribesmen have held swathes of Ramadi and all of Fallujah to its east since January, in a major setback for the government.

It is the first time that anti-government forces have exercised such open control since the bloody insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

The prospects of a quick resolution to the crisis seem slim, with Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani saying security forces were settling down for a siege of militants in Fallujah.

Shahristani said the Shiite-led government's strategy for retaking the city is to surround it and wait for the Sunni Arab militants to run short of weapons and equipment.

Iraq is facing its worst violence since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings that left tens of thousands dead.