IS militant commits suicide, grieved by son’s death in Anbar offensive

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Heartbroken with the news of his son’s death in an attack in Anbar, an Islamic State member committed suicide, a security source said Monday.

An official security source told Aljournal News website that the militant hanged himself inside his residence in Rawa, a group stronghold near Anbar’s western borders with Syria, after he had is received news of his son’s death in a random bombardment of a militants’ convoy in the same town.

Islamic State militants are still holding areas in western Anbar since 2014, when they occupied a third of Iraq to proclaim their self-styled “caliphate”. So far, there has not been a wide-scale campaign to retake those regions, but occasional offensives by government forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces have managed to take over several surrounding villages.

The Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, in July, and said it was going to proceed towards other group holdouts, including Anbar. Government troops are currently battling Is out of Tal Afar, west of Nineveh.

Late July, Iraqi army warplanes reportedly dropped millions of messages on western Anbar telling locals that liberation offensives for the province were nearing, and advising them to stay away from militants’ deployments.

Anbar’s borders with Syria had seen occasional encounters between security forces and Islamic State militants.