Officer, soldier killed by Daesh landmine in W. Iraq

By Suleiman al-Qubaisi

BAGHDAD (AA) - Two Iraqi military personnel were killed Friday in Iraq’s western Anbar province by a landmine planted by the Daesh terrorist group, according to a military source.

“An army bomb-disposal team was dismantling unexploded ordnance in recently liberated parts of Anbar’s Anah district roughly 210 kilometers west of [provincial capital] Ramadi," Army Colonel Walid al-Dulaimi told Anadolu Agency.

"An army officer and a soldier were killed -- and nine other soldiers were injured -- when a landmine exploded," al-Dulaimi said.

The injured, he added, had since been taken to a nearby hospital in Anbar for treatment.

Unexploded landmines and ordnance -- often planted by Daesh terrorists when they withdraw from strategic areas before advancing Iraqi army troops -- continue to pose a major threat to both Iraqi troops and civilian residents of recently recaptured parts of Iraq.

Last week, Iraqi troops and Arab tribal volunteers ejected Daesh terrorists from their last redoubts in Anbar province (which shares a border with neighboring Syria), including the Anah district and the cities of Rawa and Al-Qaim.

The notorious terrorist group has recently suffered a string of crushing defeats in both Iraq and Syria after overrunning vast swathes of territory in both countries in 2014.