Up to 180,000 people have been displaced by fighting in and around Hit in western Anbar province since the city fell to Islamic State militants earlier this month, the United Nations said yesterday.
Islamic State fighters overran a military base that the Iraqi army had abandoned about eight kilometres west of Hit earlier on Monday, according to an army officer and three members of a government-backed Sunni militia.
The jihadists looted three armoured vehicles and at least five tanks and then set the camp ablaze, the officer and Sunni militia fighters said.
As a result of the fighting and air strikes, carried out by the Iraqi government and US-led military coalition, up to 30,000 families or 180,000 individuals have fled Hit, which lies 20 kilometres west of Ramadi.