Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Baghdad

Airstrike kills Islamic State “finance minister” in western Anbar

 Airstrike kills Islamic State “finance minister” in western Anbar

Representational photo.

Representational photo.
Qaim (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi warplanes killed a senior Islamic State finance official in western Anbar near the borders with Syria, said a paramilitary commander on Monday.

Qatari al-Obaidi, a leader in the Anbar Popular Mobilization, said Iraqi army fighter jets struck a vehicle driven by Fawaz al-Rawi at the center of the city of Qaim, killing him immediately.

Obaidi said Rawi was the Islamic State’s “finance minister”, and was among many of IS’s top brass who died in U.S.-backed Iraqi strikes in Anbar over the past months. Several IS members with that designation have been killed in security operations targeting IS havens across Iraq.

The city of al-Qaim, Anbar (google maps)

Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Qaim and Rawa have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”.

Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the U.S.-led international coalition have also regularly pounded IS locations in the province. The Iraqi government is expected to aim at those strongholds once its campaign in Mosul, now in its eighth month, is concluded.

Violence and armed conflicts left 824 Iraqis dead and wounded during the month of May, according to a monthly count by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq which excludes security members deaths

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