Iraqi command launches awaited offensive targeting central Hawija
Commander of the Joint Operations Command’s field operations, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s military command announced on Wednesday the launch of a new phase of operations on Kirkuk’s Islamic State-held town of Hawija, this time targeting the town’s center.
The Joint Operations Command’s chief, Abdul-Amir Yarallah, said army, Federal Police, Rapid Response and the Popular Mobilization Forces began an operation targeting the center of Hawija, al-Riyad region and surrounding villages.
On Monday, the Joint Operations Command said government and PMF forces recaptured up to 45 villages during a second phase of operations launched last Friday to retake Hawija, a town southwest of Kirkuk which the militants have held since 2014.
The first phase of operations launched on September 24th, and managed to retake eastern Shirqat, an Islamic State haven in neighboring Salahuddin province.
Parallel operations were launched late September targeting IS havens in western Anbar.
A wide-scale campaign launched with the backing of a U.S.-led coalition in 2016 to recapture areas occupied by IS since 2014, when the militants declared a self-styled “caliphate” rule in Iraq and neighboring Syria based in Iraq’s Mosul.
Iraqi government, coalition and paramilitary forces recaptured Mosul, the group’s former capital, and the neighboring town of Tal Afar early July and late August.