Three IS militants killed in airstrike western Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State militants were killed while booby-trapping roads in western Anbar, according to a military source from the army’s seventh division in the province.

“The U.S.-led coalition shelled three IS members in al-Wata’ desert region, in east of Rawa city, which caused their immediate death,” the source told AlSumaria on Sunday.

The militants, according to the source, who preferred anonymity, “were booby trapping the roads leading to Rawa town to hinder advance of security forces when launching operations to free the western regions of the province.”

On Saturday, dozens of militants, as Iraqi army jets launched airstrike in Qaim town, while the coalition jets destroyed a fuel tank in the desert in western Anbar.

Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s western cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.