Four children wounded as IED explodes west of Anbar
The explosion that hits al-Baya’ area today.
Hit (IraqiNews.com) Four children were wounded when an explosive device exploded in western Anbar, a security source was quoted saying on Friday.
Alghad Press quoted a security source in Anbar saying that the children were injured when the IED, apparently left over by militants for along time, exploded while they were herding sheep in Tel Aswad, Hit.
Islamic State militants invaded several Iraqi cities in 2014 and proclaimed a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”. An Iraqi government campaign, backed by a United States-led coalition, and launched after the emergence of the group, managed to retake areas occupied by the militants, ending with Anbar’s western city of Rawa, IS’s last bastion in the country, which was retaken in November.
Leftover explosives continue to pose a threat at areas seized back from IS, occasionally leaving deaths among civilians, according to local news reports.
Fawzi Yassin, commander of Anbar’s civil defense directorate, told Alsumaria News on in Decemner that teams, over the past two years, cleared and destroyed more than 38.174 projectiles from areas recaptured by security forces.
The removed explosives included rockets, bullet rounds and multi-sized projectiles, adding that efforts continue to clear the remaining areas.
Since 2015, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has cleared 390 priority locations in Falluja and Ramadi in Anbar province, removing more than 2,600 explosive hazards from areas reclaimed from Islamic State.