Iraqi forced achieve notable advance in Anbar desert

Iraqi army fighter jets killed 27 Islamic State members in an air raid carried out on Wednesday, a senior paramilitary commander was quoted saying. Qatari al-Samarmad, a commander at Anbar’s mobilization forces, was quoted by IkhNews saying that army warplanes pounded an Islamic State hideout in Wadi Hawran, west of the province, killing 27 militants, including foreign nationals.

He said a number of vehicles and a restroom belonging to the militants were also destroyed in the raid. Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq earlier this month with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

Speaking during a weekly press briefing at the cabinet’s building in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pointed that security forces had cleared “14,000 square kilometers” of al-Jazirah, a desert region surrounded by Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh provinces, from Islamic State vestiges.
“At a military level, Islamic State in Iraq is over,” Abadi declared. He had said that final victory over IS would be proclaimed after al-Jazirah is totally cleared.

IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by the coalition, launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.

In the same context, Iraqi army fighter jets foiled a suicide attack that would target security forces at a village in western Mosul on Thursday, an air force member was quoted saying. Abdel-Qader al-Sahwwaf told Anadolu Agency that warplanes destroyed a boobytrapped armored vehicle driven by an Islamic State member at Harraj village, Hatra (80 km west of Mosul).

The attacker was aiming at Counter-Terrorism Service and Rapid Response forces, Shawwaf said, adding that the attack was foiled when U.S. reconnaissance aeroplanes detected the vehicle and informed the Iraqi air force command. Fighter jets pounded the vehicle with three rockets, killing all aboard.

Iraqi forces are currently working to clear the desert area between Nineveh, Anbar and Salahuddin from Islamic State vestiges. The forces declared the recapture of Mosul from the militants early July, ending more than eight months of battles for IS’s former capital. Since then, troops have combed the city for potential dormant militancy cells, arrested suspects and fought off occasional deadly attacks by the group.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of IS’s territorial influence earlier this month, but said final victory would be declared after desert areas are thoroughly purged from militants.

On the other hand, Six persons were killed and injured in an armed attack and bomb blast in north and south of Baghdad, security sources said on Thursday. Speaking to Alghad Press, one of the sources, who preferred anonymity, said, “unidentified gunmen opened fire against a security checkpoint of Tribal Mobilization Forces in al-Sayyed Abdullah region, south of Baghdad. One personnel was killed, while two others were wounded.

Meanwhile, another source said “a bomb, placed near stores in al-Taji region, north of Baghdad, which left three persons wounded.” The sources added that the victim was taken to forensic medicine department, while the wounded were transferred to hospital for treatment.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014. 114 Iraqi civilians were killed, while 244 others were wounded as result of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly release by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), issued on Wednesday.

The Iraqi capital has seen almost daily bombings and armed attacks against security members, paramilitary troops and civilians since the Iraqi government launched a wide-scale campaign to retake Islamic State-occupied areas in 2016. The total figure marked a decline from last month’s, which reached more than 500 civilians. The victims went down from 196, while the injured decreased down from 381.