Iraqi army kills 4 suicide bombers before crossing into Iraq from Syria
Archival photo.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi army killed four suicide bombers before crossing into Iraq from Syria on Thursday, a commander was quoted saying.
Maj. Gen. Nawman al-Zawbai, commander of the army’s 7th division, told Alsumaria News that a force from the division killed four militants clad in explosive belts who tried to sneak from the Syrian side into Iraq. His statement did not specify the region where the incident took place.
Iraqi troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, took over Islamic State’s major bastions in Iraq since October. The military command declared recently the recapture of the town of Qaim, on anbar’s borders with Syria.
Currently, only western Anbar’s town of Rawa remain in militants’ grip, and human rights groups believe the militants are holding thousands of civilians there as human shields.
Past news reports have told of senior IS leaders fleeing Anbar to Syria, where the group is also reportedly nearing a total collapse to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Russia-backed Syrian government army.
Iraq is approaching the elimination of the Islamic State’s so-called “caliphate” declared in 2014 from Iraq’s Mosul.