Iraqi forces register more gains against Daesh in Anbar

By Suleiman al-Qubaisi and Ahmed Qassem

BAGHDAD (AA) - Iraqi forces on Thursday recaptured more territory in the western Anbar province from the Daesh terrorist group, according to Iraqi military sources.

Major-General Numaan Abd al-Zawbaei, commander of the army's 7th Division, told Anadolu Agency that regular troops backed by Hashd al-Shaabi fighters had “liberated” Anbar’s Al-Saada area and the nearby villages of Jereejib and Qunaitera west of the city of Al-Qaim (located some 350 kilometers west of provincial capital Ramadi).

“Several terrorists were killed and a number of booby-trapped vehicles destroyed during the operation,” he said, adding that most remaining Daesh militants had since fled the area towards Al-Qaim.

Al-Zawbaei went on to point out that Iraqi ground forces were receiving air support from U.S.-led coalition warplanes, which, he said, had succeeded in destroying “many” Daesh sites in western Anbar.

Meanwhile, Army Captain Mohamed Khattab al-Azzawi told Anadolu Agency that Iraqi police and army forces on Thursday had dismantled a booby-trapped vehicle on the outskirts of Mosul’s Al-Hadbaa district.

Last month, the Iraqi army began a wide-ranging campaign aimed at liberating the cities of Rawa and Al-Qaim, the terrorist group’s final redoubts in Anbar.

After overrunning vast territories in northern and western Iraq in 2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of major defeats.

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