ISIL Commander Killed in Iraq’s Al-Karamah

A top ISIL commander was killed in Iraqi airstrikes Thursday in Al-Karmah, a city located 16 km northeast of Fallujah in Al-Anbar province.
Ahmad Isa Al-Khalifavi was killed along with several other Takfiri militants in the Al-Sabihat district during the push by the Iraqi army to liberate the center of the town.

This is while Iraqi security sources continue to lash out at the US and its regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists, saying Washington is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in the country.

“We have compelling evidence that a US helicopter landed in Albu Arim palms of Fallujah city to take out the ISIL leaders who were in contact with the Americans,” a senior Iraqi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told FNA last Saturday.

He noted that other US aircraft were flying over the region to protect the airplane which was boarding the ISIL leaders, adding, “The US took out the ISIL leaders in order to rescue them from possible attacks by the Iraqi Army and security forces.”

In relevant remarks in October, Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini disclosed that captured ISIL leaders have acknowledged receiving logistical backup and intelligence support from the US.

“As the ISIL commanders captured in Iraqi popular forces’ recent military operations have confessed, the US supports for the terrorist groups are not limited to the dispatch of logistical support,” Al-Hosseini told FNA.

He reiterated that the US has provided the ISIL with intelligence about the Iraqi forces’ positions and targets.

“ISIL commanders trusted the US officials who had assured them that the Iraqi forces would not attack Fallujah because the US had urged the Iraqi government to prevent the popular forces from entering Fallujah and raid Beiji instead; hence the terrorists left Fallujah for Beiji to stay on the alert in there,” Al-Hosseini added.

Al-Hosseini said his forces plan to win back the city of Ramadi only after expelling the American forces from Anbar province.

“Our forces have two operations underway; first seizing Ramadi from ISIL and second keeping away the American forces from Anbar province,” he told FNA.

He underlined that preventing the US forces from getting close to Anbar province will expedite operations for winning back the province, specially after the military operations in Salahuddin province that led to the liberation of the city of Beiji.