Three civilians killed, wounded in air raid west of Ramadi

Rutba (IraqiNews.com) The civilians died and sustained injuries when unidentified warplanes carried out an air raid near a house west of Anbar’s city of Ramadi, a local official was quoted saying.

Emad al-Dulaimi, mayor of the city of Rutba, said unidentified warplanes killed a woman, her 13-year-old daughter and wounded her husband in Okashat, north of the city (310 Km west of Ramadi).

Local officials have occasionally reported civilian deaths in airstrikes by unidentified jets in the same region. The Iraqi government forces, as well as the U.S.-led coalition, have occasionally faced accusations of causing deaths among civilians during operations targeting Islamic State havens.

Islamic State militants have held the towns of Anah, Rawa and Qaim, west of Anbar, since 2014, when they occupied a third of Iraq to proclaim their self-styled “caliphate”. So far, there has not been a wide-scale campaign to retake those regions, but occasional offensives managed to take over several surrounding villages.

The Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul, the group’s former capital in Iraq, in July, and said it was going to proceed towards other group holdouts, including Anbar.

Also late July, Iraqi warplanes reportedly dropped millions of messages telling locals that liberation offensives for the province were nearing, and telling them to stay away from militants’ deployments.