Iraqi army forces, allies retake over dozen villages in Anbar

Iraqi government forces, backed by allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, have established control over more than a dozen villages in the country’s western province of Anbar as they are trying to purge the Euphrates Valley, which straddles the Iraqi-Syrian border, from the last remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The commander of the al-Jazira and Upper Euphrates liberation operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, said on Wednesday that army troops and pro-government fighters – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi – had completely retaken 13 villages, including al-Jadish, al-Deir, al-Khour, al-Bawadiyah, al-Sammah, al-Baydhah, al-Hassaniyah, and al-Samsiyah over the past three days, and killed more than 38 Daesh extremists, Arabic-language al-Mawazin news agency reported.

Yarallah noted that government forces and their allies had also detonated six car bombs, killed three bombers, and destroyed eight motorcycle bombs as well as 10 vehicles carrying personnel and military hardware to Daesh terrorists.

The senior Iraqi military official further noted that the forces had defused or detonated more than 100 improvised explosive devices during the mentioned period as well.

Yarallah went on to say that military units were continuing to advance towards the town of Rawah, located about 300 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad.

On November 11, Iraqi army soldiers and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters launched a major operation to retake Rawah.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in a statement released on November 8, announced that Daesh had taken about 2,500 families, equivalent to some 10,000 individuals, hostage in Rawah.

The OHCHR also appealed to the Iraqi government and security forces involved in the Rawah liberation operation to open safe exit routes for civilians to frustrate terrorist schemes aimed at using ordinary people as human shields.

Late last month, the Iraqi prime minister formally ordered the launch of operations to purge Daesh terrorists from the towns of Rawah and al-Qa’im.