MUSLIMS UNITED AGAINST TERRORISM: Over 1,000 Iraqi Sunni fighters join anti-ISIL campaign

Over 1,000 Sunni fighters from Iraq’s western province of Anbar have joined the country’s Popular Mobilization Forces in their fight against ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

The fighters, along with political, security, and tribal leaders, participated in a large parade at a base in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah in Anbar on Friday.

“Your country has been stolen by a bunch of thieves and thugs and you must fight to take it back,” Anbar Governor Soheib al-Rawi said during the event.

“Let this day be the day when we celebrate a massive revolution against Daesh… Kick Daesh out of our homes, fight their extremist ideology and tighten the noose around them,” Rawi added, using an Arabic acronym for the ISIL.

He also noted that, according to an executive order by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, some 6,000 Sunni fighters from Anbar will integrate into the Popular Mobilization units.

Iraqi Sunni forces from Anbar province participate in their first training session at a base in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah in Anbar province on May 8, 2015. (AFP photo)

The parade came as a sign of official cooperation of Sunni tribal fighters with other Iraqi volunteer forces, although a large number of Sunnis had already been fighting against the ISIL terror group in Anbar and other areas.

ISIL launched an offensive in Iraq in June last year and took control of Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, before sweeping through parts of the country’s heartland.

The terrorists have committed heinous crimes and threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians during their advances in Iraq.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia fighters and Sunni tribesmen have been engaged in joint operations to drive the terrorists out of the areas they have seized, with the recapture of the northern city of Tikrit being one of their significant achievements.