Iraqi warplanes kill four Islamic State terrorists in Anbar
A Shi’ite volunteer wearing a mask, who has joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), looks on during a parade on a street in Kanaan, Diyala province, June 26, 2014.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Four members of the Islamic State terrorist group were killed Sunday in an air raid on a terrorist hotbed in Anbar province, a tribal militia commander said.
“Iraqi warplanes have targeted a secret tunnel of the Islamic State militant group in al-Madham district, 90 km south of Ain Assad airbase in western Anbar,” Qatari al Obeidi told Alsumaria News TV channel.
“The airstrike left four Islamic State terrorists killed,” Obeidi said, adding that the bombardment destroyed a large cache of IS ammunition and weapons inside the tunnel.
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi army launched a military operation to purge the desert areas in Ar Rutbah, west of Anbar, from Islamic State cells.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS 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.