9 Islamic militants killed in Anbar artillery shelling
Iraqi security forces fire a heavy artillery. File photo.
A security source was quoted by Mawazin News as saying that the shelling, which targeted group gatherings west of al-Rutba region, also- destroyed a number of vehicles belonging to the extremist group.
Islamic State has been holding a number of towns in western Anbar since 2014. Iraqi and international coalition fighter jets have occasionally pounded the group’s pockets there. The government has yet to give orders to security and tribal forces in the province to carry out a ground invasion of those hideouts. A brief security operation, which was not officially declared by the Iraqi government, launched on January 5th and recaptured a few villages in western Anbar before halting again.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition, have been fighting Islamic State militants in several pockets across Iraq, most notably the city of Mosul, where operations since October killed at least 3300 militants and confined the group in the city’s western section.
The group has been reportedly sustaining serious losses in personnel, equipment and finances, and reports say it had been ravaged with divisions and infighting, with some fighters also executed or demoted for escaping the battlefield.
The United Nations’ envoy to Iraq, Yan Kubic, said Thursday that the group’s days in Iraq were “numbered”.