Iraqi army opens 2nd phase of anti-Daesh ops in Kirkuk

By Ibrahim Saleh

BAGHDAD (AA) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday morning announced the launch of the second phase of ongoing military operations aimed at wresting Kirkuk’s Hawija district from the Daesh terrorist group.

In a televised statement, al-Abadi vowed to “liberate every inch of Iraq and crush the Daesh terror gangs once and for all”.

Army Lieutenant-General Abdul Amir Yarullah, who is commanding the operation, said in a statement that the second phase was aimed at retaking the district center and the outlying villages of Nahawi, Rashad, Riyadh and Abbasi.

Along with Kirkuk’s Hawija district, Daesh’s rapidly diminishing presence in the country is now largely confined to the towns of Rawa and Al-Qaim in Iraq’s western Anbar province near the Syrian border.

After overrunning vast territories in both Iraq and Syria in mid-2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of decisive defeats at the hands of the Iraqi army.

Last month, the group was driven from Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. One month earlier, the northern city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.