Official: ISIS set off 30 car bombs in Ramadi, with 10 as big as the Oklahoma City blast

(Image credit: Twitter.com/WilliamsJon)

published 21 May 2015

New information is coming out about the events leading up to Islamic State taking over Ramadi, Iraq, on Sunday — including that 30 car bombs were detonated in the city center, 10 of them similar to the Oklahoma City truck bomb.

The vehicles were able to get to the city center after an armored bulldozer plowed through barricades surrounding government buildings, ABC reports, and a senior State Department official said on Wednesday the blasts took out "entire city blocks." After the bombs went off, the Iraqis deployed a reinforcement column to the city center, the official said, but they came under heavy fire and had to retreat.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox