Mayor at western Anbar IS haven resigns, citing limited powers

Annah (IraqiNews.com) A mayor of a town in western Anbar occupied by Islamic State militants tendered his resignation on Sunday, citing constraints on his authority regarding the handling of security issues.

“My post as mayor of the town has become useless for the people who have been under Daesh(Islamic State) gangs’ control for more than three years. I have been unable to give them any assistance despite persistent calls to invade the region and liberate it from Daesh,” Saad Awwad told Almaalomah website.

Awwad decried what he described as the lack of a mandate to manage the security and services portfolios. “The current period requires to expand the powers of municipal councils to run areas under IS control,” he said.

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.