Iraqi security destroy secret Islamic State tunnels in Anbar
Iraqi security forces evacuate an injured soldier during heavy fighting against Islamic State group militants in Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 15, 2016. Fallujah has been locked in a cycle of conflict since 2003, when it emerged as a bastion of the insurgency against the Americans. Militant attacks and bombings were followed by sweeping arrest raids, which further stoked local grievances. In 2004, U.S. troops launched two massive assaults on the city, where they fought their bloodiest battles since Vietnam. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi security forces destroyed on Tuesday several Islamic State tunnels and seized a large cache of the terrorist group’s weapons in Anbar province, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to the privately-owned Almaalomah news agency, the source said that a security operation was launched to purge the desert of Hit district, west of Anbar, from Islamic State’s terrorist hotbeds.
The operation, according to the source, resulted in destroying many secret tunnels of Islamic State and seizing a large cache of ammunition and weapons at the scene. It was launched based on intelligence information, he added.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.