Spokesman: Liberating Anbar Province, Huwaija Town Top Priority of Iraqi Popular Forces

“At present, the top priority of the Iraqi popular forces and the military units is the full freedom of al-Anbar province and then Huwaija from the ISIL hands,” Spokesman of the Iraqi popular forces Karim al-Nouri told FNA.

He underlined that purging the terrorists from Huwaija town in Kirkuk province is merely possible through coordination with the Kurds.

Nouri said the complicated and difficult nature of conducting operations in certain parts of Iraq cannot dissuade the Iraqi forces from liberating them.

Reports on Monday said that at least 69 ISIL terrorists were killed and injured in the Western province of al-Anbar by the Iraqi army’s airstrikes and artillery fire.

Iraqi fighter jets killed and wounded at least 43 ISIL terrorists in Qaem district in the restive province of al-Anbar, the interior ministry said in a statement on Sunday, adding that 5 ISIL ringleaders were also killed.

At least 28 terrorists were killed and 15 others were injured during the operations, and the ISIL ringleader in Mosul and Baghdad Ayad Abusaleh is also seen among the dead, the statement added.

Also 26 Takfiri terrorists were killed by the Iraqi forces’ artillery fire against their positions in al-Sokrah district in Anbar province.

Earlier, the Baghdad Operations Command confirmed that the Iraqi Army defended its positions against the ISIL terrorists’ attacks in the nearby areas of Nazim Taqsim in Anbar and killed 31 militants in the battlefield.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently control shrinking swathes of Syria and Iraq. They have threatened all communities, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Ezadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

The ISIL has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.