In an intensifying humanitarian crisis in Iraq’s embattled Anbar Province, thousands of residents are fleeing a pitched battle between Islamic State militants and pro-government forces around the provincial capital. Checkpoints on the main approach to Baghdad from western Anbar Province are choked with cars, as the Iraqi authorities refuse entry to people who do not have a resident of Baghdad to vouch for them and provide them shelter. In normal times, a drive between the provincial capital, Ramadi, and Baghdad takes little more than an hour. Those lucky enough to reach Baghdad on Friday said they had been traveling for two days. On the edge of Baghdad on Friday, just past a government checkpoint, Saad al-Thiabi, a police officer in Ramadi who has […]