38 ISIS Turban die in airstrike near Qaim
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by fighter jets from the US-led coalition killed 38 members of the Islamic State militants in Anbar, some near the borders with Syria, on Monday.
Col. Walid al-Dailami, from the army’s Anbar Operations, said one of strikes targeted an IS location in al-Rabt, a region of the town of Qaem, near the Syrian borders, killing 33 at a training camp run by the group.
Meanwhile, Anbar’s top operations commander, Qassem al-Mohammadi, was quoted by AlMada Press as saying that five other militants were killed in coalition strikes at Wadi Muweil, west of the city of Ramadi. A booby-trapping workshop, a vehicle and a rocket launcher used by the group were also destroyed. he said.
IS has been holding Qaem, along with other few regions in western Anbar, since the group emerged in 2014 to proclaim a so-called “Islamic Caliphate”. Thousands of civilians are stranded under the group’s control and are barred from exiting.
The Iraqi army command in Anbar declared on the 5th of January the start of tribes-backed operations to retake IS remaining pockets in the province’s western regions. The operations lasted for a few days, recapturing a few villages, before halting again. Security sources said after the halt of operations that the government had decided to halt battles in Anbar until the end of operations in Mosul.
Iraqi and coalition fighter jets have, however, carried out regular strikes on Islamic State locations in the west. The group responded with stepping up several attacks in the past weeks that killed several security personnel.
On Sunday, Khalaf al-Jleibawi, a senior leader at al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), which fights IS with the government, said security forces had received confirmed information that several families of Islamic State militants had begun returning to the city of Ramadi, which security forces said they fully recaptured late 2015.
Iraqi kops detain 2 ISIS troops
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Security forces from the Federal Police arrested two members of the Islamic State who attempted to assassinate a police officer in Abu Gharib area, west of Baghdad, a source told Al Ghad Press on Monday.
The source said, “Security forces from the Federal Police’s 5th intelligence brigade monitored three suspects in al-Kanisa Street in Abu Gharib area.”
“Security forces ambushed them and found that they were attempting to place an adhesive explosive device under the vehicle of a police officer in the area of Abu Gharib,” the source added.
Two of the suspects were arrested and then transferred to a security center, and after interrogation they confessed that they belong to the so-called Wilayat al-Janub of the Islamic State group.