Int. Coalition destroyed 15 ISIS headquarters in Iraq’s Anbar

Twenty-one Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike by the international coalition led by the U.S. in Anbar province, Jazeera Operations Command has declared. The airstrikes, according to sources, were carried out by the coalition against IS locations in Annah city, within operations to liberate the remaining cities held by the group in Anbar.

Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Qaim and Rawa have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. The U.S-led Coalition managed to destroy over 15 headquarters related to ISIS extremist group.

Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the international coalition have regularly pounded IS locations in the province. The Iraqi government plans a military operation to liberate those regions once it finishes its almost eight-month-old campaign to retake the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest stronghold in Iraq.

In April, Qutri al-Obeidi, a leader with the paramilitary al-Hashd al-Shaabi troops said IS members were evacuated from Rawa town towards Qaim after the leaders ordered the fighters, along with their families, to leave due to intensified airstrikes.

Earlier in March, reports indicated possible joint operations by the Iraqi and U.S. forces to clear the three towns located near the borders with Syria.

In the same context, Islamic State’s so-designated “finance minister” has fled the group’s havens in Anbar province, carrying large amounts of money allocated for fighters’ salaries, a paramilitary source was quoted saying.

Qatari al-Obaidi, a senior leader at the Tribal Mobilization, told Alsumaria News that Islamic State’s finance official, Sabbar Batoushi, fled the town of Annah, 210 kilometers west of the city of Ramadi, carrying large amounts of the group’s funds. Obaidi said the militants declared a curfew in the town in search for the fugitive leader.

Since Iraqi government forces launched a wide-scale campaign to retake Islamic State-held regions in October 2016, the militant group has reportedly suffered financial constraints and many of it senior leaders have either died in combat or fled battlefields.

Islamic State has held the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim since 2014, when it proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Recent news reports have said military reinforcements were sent to areas near those towns preparing for an invasion against IS. The Iraqi Joint Operations Command has, meanwhile, declared that its coming battle would be in IS-held Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk. So far, U.S.-backed government forces recaptured Mosul, Islamic State’s former capital, and the town of Tal Afar, a major haven west of Mosul.

In Tal Affar, Iraqi forces killed 17 Islamic State militants northwest of Tal Afar, two weeks after the enclave was recaptured by government troops, a military commander said Monday.

Gamal Saadoun, a senior commander in Kurdish Peshmerga forces, told Kurdish network Rudaw that Iraqi troops attacked the village of Qasab al-Rai, Ayyadiyah, northwest of Tal Afar, from three directions, breaking a 13-day siege on the region.

With clashes erupting between the militants and Iraqi army troops, 17 militants fell in a Peshmerga ambush, and were killed consequently, said Saadoun.

According to Rudaw, field sources had said that 200 Islamic State militants, mostly foreigners, were stranded inside Qasab al-Rai during the siege.

Iraqi forces took over Tal Afar and surrounding areas late August, consummating the recapture of Nineveh province as part of a wide-scale campaign to liberate Islamic State-held regions that launched in October.

The Iraqi government and military commanders are eyeing the recapture of Hawija, Islamic State’s bastion in Kirkuk, as their next move. IS still holds havens in Anbar and Salahuddin.

Iraq hopes to bring down the self-proclaimed “caliphate” declared by Islamic State’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 2014 over a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

On political side, Sources revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman intends to rally a unified Arab and Gulf position to oppose the independence of Kurdistan and to support the unity of Iraq during the coming period. The source revealed that Bin Salman contacted with a number of Arab leaders to discuss the ways to prevent the referendum.

The Saudi position cope with the position adopted by U.S President Donald Trump since he took the power, as he expressed his support for a unified state in Iraq and expressed his refusal to the calls for allowing Kurds gain independence from the central government of Iraq.