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Army kills 15 Islamic State militants, destroys car bombs west of Anbar

 Army kills 15 Islamic State militants, destroys car bombs west of Anbar

Iraqi government forces are seen near the Falahat village west of Fallujah on June 27, 2016.

Iraqi government forces are seen near the Falahat village west of Fallujah on June 27, 2016.
Iraqi forces took the Islamic State group’s last positions in the city of Fallujah on June 26, establishing full control over one of the jihadists’ most emblematic bastions after a month-long operation. / AFP PHOTO / MOADH AL-DULAIMI

Haditha (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces killed 15 Islamic State militants and destroyed a number of booby-trapped cars west of Anbar, a senior commander in the province said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Qassem al-Mohammadi, head of the army’s Al-Jazeera Operations, was quoted by Alsumaria News saying that a security force, backed by tribal fighters, killed 15 militants and destroyed four boob-trapped vehicles at the heart of Um al-Wez desert, northwest of Haditha city.

The offensive was backed by warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition, according to Mohammadi.

Islamic State has held the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim, on Anbar’s borders with Syria, since 2014, when they occupied a third of Iraq to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”. So far, there has not been a wide-scale campaign to retake those regions, but occasional offensives managed to take over several surrounding villages.

The Iraqi government declared victory over IS in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, earlier this month, and said it was going to proceed towards other group holdouts.

The Ministry of Defense said last week that though the Joint Operations Command gives “special attention” to the liberation of the town of Tal Afar, west of Nineveh, as the next target, troops can launch simultaneous operations also targeting IS havens west of Anbar.

Last week, Iraqi warplanes reportedly dropped millions of messages telling locals that liberation offensives for the province were nearing.

 

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