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Islamic State sets oil wells on fire, urges militants evacuate villages in Hawija
[Iraq News] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
has set oil wells in southwest of Kirkuk on fire to hinder advance of security troops, hours after the launch of offensives to liberate the group’s holdout in the province.

A statement by the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said "the krazed killer group set two oil wells in Allas oilfield, south of Hawija to hinder advance of troops."

Another statement by PMFs, earlier today, said the group urged its hard boyz to evacuate villages in north of Hawija toward Abbassi, after injury of its military official in Abbassi, located northwest of Hawija.

Early on Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and the Joint Operations Command announced beginning of the second phase of Hawija offensive.

On Sunday, the Joint Operations Command announced completing the first phase of operations to recapture Hawija, which launched on September 21. According to Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell, 557 IS hard boyz were killed, while more than 100 villages and regions were liberated during the first phase.

Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasoul, front man of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said previously that the number of Islamic State members in Hawija falls between 800 and 1500.

Hawija and other neighboring regions, west of Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
have been held by IS since mid-2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: Fred 2017-09-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=498515