Int’l coalition warplanes destroy four Islamic State caves in Anbar
Members of the Iraqi Federal Police forces stand inside an underground tunnel dug by Islamic State militants south of western Mosul’s Old City.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi authorities announced on Monday that four caves of Islamic State were destroyed in Anbar province.
“The U.S.-led international coalition warplanes destroyed four IS caves and dismantled 14 explosive charges at al-Jazeera region in Anbar,” Iraqi website Alghad Press quoted the Security Media Center as saying.
A bomb from the Islamic State war remnants was also detonated on the strategic road leading to the Green Bridge, the statement added.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Last year, former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi pointed out that security forces had cleared 14,000 square kilometers of al-Jazeera, a desert region surrounded by Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh provinces, from Islamic State vestiges.
Islamic State declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was 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.