Iraqi army repulses Islamic State attack, west of Anbar
Islamic State fighters on pickup trucks in Anbar, west of Iraq.
“Army troops repelled an IS attack in al-Jazeera region, located between Annah and Rawa towns,” the source told Baghdad Today.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source added, “IS militants escaped toward the western desert of Anbar.”
Thirteen villages were freed, while forty-five IS members and two suicide bombers were killed in three days, according to a statement issued earlier by the War Media Cell.Advance toward Rawa is still ongoing.
Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced on Friday liberation of Qaim in record time. Troops also freed Ebeidi and Krabla regions 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”.
Earlier on the day, the Russian Sputnik agency quoted Na’eem al-Kaoud, head of Anbar provincial council’s security committee, as saying that troops managed to free the civilians besieged by IS militants in Rawa.
Iraqi forces have managed, so far, to retake Mosul, the group’s former capital, the town of Tal Afar, west of Nineveh, Kirkuk’s town of Hawija and Anbar’s Annah and Qaim.