18 ISIL snipers killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces

More than a dozen Takfiri ISIL terrorists have been killed as Iraqi security forces launched an operation against the militants in the country’s embattled western province of Anbar.

Commander of the Federal Police Forces Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said Iraqi police troopers on Monday carried out an offensive in the city of Husaybah, which lies seven kilometers (4.5 miles) east of Anbar’s provincial capital city of Ramadi, killing 18 ISIL snipers in the process, the Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network reported.

He added that security personnel also managed to defuse 44 improvised explosive devices, and secure the road linking two towns east of Ramadi.

Separately, at least 30 ISIL members were killed when Iraqi forces, backed by tribal fighters, repelled a militant onslaught on the city of al-Khaldiya, located about 83 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad. There were reportedly foreign nationals among the slain Takfiris.

Six vehicles belonging to the terrorists were also destroyed during the heavy clashes.

Moreover, fighters from pro-government Popular Mobilization units seized control of a field hospital run by ISIL militants in the city of Saqlawiyah, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Baghdad.

The facility is equipped with sophisticated medical devices and even has an operating room, where surgeries on wounded Takfiri militants used to be done, the al-Forat news agency reported.

The commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Iraqi Army’s 30th Brigade, Colonel Mahmoud Morzi al-Jumaili, also said an ISIL militant commander, identified as Kamal Sahi Faraj al-Issawi, and a number of his aides were killed when Iraqi fighter jets  pounded terrorist positions in al-Karmah town, located about 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, on Monday.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by violence ever since Takfiri ISIL militants began their march through the Iraqi territory in June 2014.

The heavily-armed terrorists took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s heartland.