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| Iraq |
| 13 ISIS Bad Guys smoked in airstrike in Hawija |
| 2017-10-05 |
| Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Fighter jets from the United States-led coalition killed on Wednesday 13 Islamic State leaders in an air raid on Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, as operations to closer to retaking the strategic haven. Dijlah TV quoted a local source saying that the dead militants included seven members of the group’s so-called “treasury”. The Iraqi Joint Operations Command said joint forces launched on Wednesday morning a new offensive targeting the center of Hawija, a major Islamic State stronghold which the militants occupied since 2014. The decisive onslaught comes as part of a second stage of operations launched last Friday.The first phase of operations launched on September 24th, and managed to retake eastern Shirqat, an Islamic State haven in neighboring Salahuddin province. Also on Wednesday, Popular Mobilization Forces’ media said the troops managed Wednesday to take over the road linking central Hawija. A senior leader within the force, Jabbar al-Maamouri, had told Alsumaria News that the PMF were one kilometer from the town’s center. Iraqi forces commence operations in Hawija Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi forces invaded on Wednesday the center of Hawija town, Islamic State’s major bastion in southwestern Kirkuk, the Iraqi military command said. The Popular Mobilization Forces’ media outlet had said earlier on Wednesday that Iraqi forces fully recaptured the town, but a later statement by the Joint Operations Command suggested that the invasion of the town’s center was just beginning. It said army, Federal Police, Rapid Response Forces, and PMF caused “serious losses” for IS militants with the invasion. JOC field commander, Abdul-Amir Yarallah, said operations have so far seized back 98 villages and left 196 militants dead. The decisive onslaught came as part of a second stage of operations launched last Friday to seize the town held by Islamic State militants since 2014. The first phase of operations launched on September 24th, and managed to retake eastern Shirqat, an Islamic State haven in neighboring Salahuddin province. Iraqi military photographer dies in mortar attack Hawija (IraqiNews.com) A photographer working with Iraq’s military media was killed while covering heightening encounters between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in Hawija, Kirkuk, military media reported. Hamza al-Abboudi, a photographer with the Defense Ministry’s“War Media Cell”, was killed when Islamic State militants fired a mortar shell on his locations when troops were invading the center of the group’s bastion in southwestern Kirkuk. Iraqi joint forces invaded central Hawija earlier on Wednesday, having launched a major offensive to retake the strategic haven late September. Conflicts in Iraq have killed 465 Iraqi journalists in 14 years, the head of the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Moayed al-Lami, said on Wednesday. Seven reporters were killed in Iraq in 2016, out of a total of 57 who were killed in conflict areas across the world, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s 2016 report. In the organization’s press freedom index for 2017, Iraq came in the 158th place globally and 13th among Arab countries. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Iraq as the world’s leading country in terms of impunity regarding journalists’ killing, attributing the fact to the involvement of extremist militias in the murders. |
| Posted by:badanov |