Six Islamic State militants killed in coalition airstrikes in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Six Islamic State militants were killed on Thursday in air strikes by fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition that targeted group strongholds in western Anbar, a local military official said.

Maj. Gen. Qassem al-Mohammadi, from the army’s al-Jazeera Operations in Anbar, was quoted as saying that the strikes also destroyed three rest houses used by the militants in Rayhana, in the western town of Annah.

Anbar’s western regions still host some Islamic State strongholds that sustain occasional bombardments by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition fighter jets. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again. It is believed that the Iraqi government will not aim at western Anbar before its forces are done with retaking Mosul, Islamic State’s biggest bastion in Iraq where security forces have been battling the group since mid October.

Local officials say thousands of civilians are held by the extremist group in western Anbar to use them as human shields against any security offensive.