Iraqi troops prepare operation in Wadi HauranBaghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi troops are on high alert to liberate Wadi Hauran area from the Islamic State militants, a military commander said.
“Our units have cleared 50 percent of the total area of the desert of around 29,000 square kilometers (11,000 sq miles). The first phase is over,” Spokesman for the Joint Operations Command Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told AFP on Monday.
“Now, our units will proceed to clearing the rest of the desert zones, including Wadi (valley) Hauran,” he said.
“The valley is deep and reaches Syrian territory. The mission is to destroy all the hideouts in the desert and valleys to secure western Iraq’s border with Syria” before soldiers are posted along the frontier, he said.
Wadi Hauran, with 200-metre-deep (650-foot-deep), is the longest valley in Iraq, stretching on 350 kilometers (210 miles) from the Saudi border to the Euphrates River, also reaching the borders with Jordan.
Iraqi Army destroys ISIS camp near al-Rutba
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi army destroyed on Tuesday an Islamic State camp south of Ar-Rutbah town in Anbar, a military commander said.
“The army’s 1st brigade destroyed an IS camp at a desert area near Ar-Rutbah town in Anbar,” Commander of Anbar Operations Major General Mahmoud al-Falahi told DijlahTv on Tuesday.
“The camp included a booby-trapped vehicle, explosive charges and a laboratory for making bombs,” Falahi said.
On Monday, a woman was killed, while her husband and daughter were injured as a booby-trapped house exploded in Anbar province.