Thursday, March 28, 2024

Baghdad

Coalition jets destroy IS targets, kill militants in desert: Military

 Coalition jets destroy IS targets, kill militants in desert: Military

The Islamic State militants. File photo.

The Islamic State militants. File photo.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The U.S.-led Coalition jets have destroyed more than twenty targets of Islamic State, killing militants in Al-Jazeera desert, the military media reported.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said, “the Coalition jets launched airstrike against IS militants in al-Jazeera desert.”

“The airstrike left militants killed and twenty-two targets, including headquarters, havens as well as stores of booby-trapped vehicles, destroyed,” it added.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said during his weekly press briefing on Tuesday that his country has defeated Islamic State over the military level, but will declare final victory after desert areas are purged of militants.

Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, announced on Friday, achieving “great victory” in Rawa, stressing that advance will resume in the depth of desert toward the Syrian borders.

Iraqi Interior Minister said that the military presence of IS is over after the liberation of Rawa in western Anbar.

Earlier this month, Abadi declared the liberation of Qaim and other regions from IS members in western Anbar.

Operations were launched, late October, to liberate Qaim and Rawa towns. Both have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it occupied one third of Iraq to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

The war against IS has displaced nearly five million people, with tens of thousands of civilians and militants killed since the launch of the offensives to recapture occupied cities.

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