It is the clearest indication yet of the approaching demise of ISIS in Iraq.

Islamic State fighters retreated from several western Iraqi towns and towards the Syrian border on Sunday as security forces worked their way up the Euphrates Valley, officers said.
The jihadist organisation's leadership ordered its fighters out of Hit, Kubaysa and Rutba, prompting thousands of civilians to take to the road to meet advancing federal forces while others enjoyed their first hours of freedom in months.
Hit, around 145 kilometres (90 miles) west of Baghdad, was one of the main towns in Anbar province that was still held by IS.
Kubaysa is a smaller town to the west of Hit while Rutba is a desert outpost on the road to Jordan about 390 kilometres (245 miles) west of the capital.

ISIS has never voluntarily surrendered a major city like Hit before. Tikrit and Ramadi they only left after brutal battles that left those cities in ruins.
The fact that they are retreating without a fight shows a severe manpower shortage.

Even more significant, they are abandoning Anbar province, which has been the most active area of Sunni resistance to Shia Baghdad. With just one exception: isolated and besieged Fallujah.

Humanitarian disaster is looming in the western Iraq city of Fallujah, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces, where tens of thousands of people face food shortages, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday.
There is no flour, rice, sugar or oil available in Fallujah and the prices of the little food that is left have risen sharply, the agency quoted Fallujah residents as saying.

The dire conditions in Fallujah are threatening Daesh's control of the city. With nowhere to run, this might be the next ugly showdown.

You might think that with ISIS on the ropes, Baghdad would be looking to land the knock-out punch.
There's just one problem: Baghdad is in nearly as bad of shape.

Just as it is starting to turn the tide against Isil, Iraq is running out of money.
Behind the front lines of the Iraqi desert, where the Nineveh provincial police are training to retake their homes in and around Mosul, they are short of one thing: weapons.
“We have been regrouped here since the fall of Mosul,” said Major Ayman, standing over his line of men in blue uniforms. “We have been waiting here for five months but we have no weapons.” ...
In the last two months, a new foe has reared its head. The collapse in the price of oil on the world markets.

Around 90 per cent of Iraq's income comes from oil. Since ISIS invaded, the price of oil has dropped by more than 2/3rd.
It isn't just a matter of giving Iraq more guns. A military is more than just the number of bullets it has.

as operations move further away from the capital, government forces are increasingly plagued by logistical shortcomings....
"He's very detail-oriented, during the previous administration the Iraqi military had a lot of issues with troops not being fed, in addition to, you know, the larger payroll issues," said an official from the minister's office.
He was referring euphemistically to the entrenched corruption in the Iraqi military, which was exposed in the summer of 2014 when the army all but collapsed and Islamic State group fighters captured Mosul. In addition to the tens of thousands of troops who fled in the face of the ISIS assault, more than 50,000 troops were later revealed to be ghost soldiers — nonexistent troops whose pay was pocketed by senior commanders.

Armies can't march on empty stomachs, trucks don't run without fuel, and soldiers will desert if they aren't paid. The collapse of oil prices and government revenue just makes those existing problems worse.
One of those problems is the deterioration of social services is sparking unrest.

Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr on Saturday urged his followers to ramp up pro-reform rallies by setting up tents in front of Baghdad's 'Green Zone' and camping out until their demands are met.

The Sunnis tried peaceful protest camps in 2012-2013. They were met with bullets, and this eventually led to the ISIS insurrection.
Maybe the Shias will have more luck at pushing reforms.