Baghdad - Najla Al Taee
Official of the Office of the Liberation of the Kurdish Yezidis in Dohuk revealed, on Saturday, the liberation of 36 abductees of Yazidi women and children from the grip of ISIS extremist group in the city of Mosul. Meanwhile, the Security Committee in Baghdad Provincial Council, revealed the final outcome of the suicide bombing, which occurred in the neighborhood of Karrada, central Baghdad, noting that it amounted to 10 dead and wounded, mostly from the police.
In the same context, Iraqi intelligence issued a report showing that 11 Iraqi soldiers and about 20 members of Popular Mobilization Forces were killed by a sniper called Nura in Mosul. The report said that snipers known as "Russian Belle" are still using the same approach she used before during the battle of Fallujah before they disappear.
A 100-soldier U.S. special force has stationed at the Iraqi army’s command center in Ramadi, west of Anbar province, a network reported Friday.
Kurdish-owned Rudaw network said the force stationed at the army’s al-Jazeera Operations command near the Haditha Dam, west of Ramadi.
The network quoted Ahmed al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi army captain, saying the force was fully armed, and was expected to partake in arrangements for an anticipated military offensive to retake the Islamic State stronghold city of Annah, west of the province
According to al-Dulaimi, there has been a continuous, intense aerial bombardment by fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition on Annah, with the aim of exhausting the group’s fighting capabilities before invasion by security and tribal forces.
Islamic State has held the western towns of Annah, Qaim and Rawa since it emerged in 2014 to proclaim a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”. The group stepped up attacks targeting Iraqi border guards recently. Iraqi and coalition fighter jets regularly pound the group’s locations.
Reports in March had disclosed possible joint operations by the Iraqi and U.S. forces to clear the IS towns. In the same month, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command denied news regarding the arrival of 2000 U.S. Marine soldiers in Anbar to engage in the campaign.
Also on Friday, a security source told Alsumaria News that coalition jets killed 4 militants after targeting their vehicle in Rawa. Those killed included the group’s area booby-trapping official.
The Army’s 7th Brigade Command in Anbar Province, on Thursday, announced that 11 fighters of the Islamic State group were killed, and two booby-trapped vehicles were destroyed by an air strike, west of the province.
The Command said in a statement that the international coalition air force bombarded two booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the Islamic State group, in the city of Anah, destroying them completely.
The coalition air force also managed to bomb a hideout of the Islamic State and an explosives lab in the city of Anah, killing 11 members of the terrorist group, the statement added. Noteworthy, security forces finished their preparations to liberate the cities of Anah, Rawa and al-Qaim, west of Anbar, from the Islamic State group.