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Iraqi forces gain more yardage near Qaim
Qaim (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi forces recaptured more areas from Islamic State militants on Tuesday as operations continue to retake the group’s last bastions in western Anbar.The Joint Operations Command’s War Media Cell said the forces recaptured several villages near the town of Qaim besides the town’s “phosphate factory”. According to the statement, troops became 13 kilometers away from central Qaim. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Thursday the launch of operations to clear the towns of Rawa and Qaim, Islamic State’s last havens on the borders with Syria. More from al-Manar Iraqi forces on Tuesday battled up to the edge of Al-Qa’em, the largest town still held by the ISIL group in the country, as they pushed a final assault on the terrorists. Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said government troops captured the village of Al-Obeidi, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border on the eastern outskirts of the town. “ISIL fighters resisted the advance of the troops, but the majority retreated to positions in the center of Al-Qa’em,” it said in a statement. Al-Qa’em and the surrounding pocket of barren desert territory along the Euphrates river is now the last remnant in the country of the so- called ‘caliphate’ ISIL declared after storming Iraq and Syria in 2014. Iraq launched the offensive on the Al-Qa’em region — which also includes the smaller town of Rawa — on Thursday to finish off a punishing campaign that saw it force the terrorists out their major urban stronghold Mosul in July. Source: AFP Posted by: badanov 2017-11-01 |
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