US-led coalition hits Daesh positions in Iraq’s Anbar

By Suleiman al-Qubaisi and Ibrahim Saleh

BAGHDAD (AA) – U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck several Daesh positions and assets in different parts of Iraq’s western Anbar province, Major-General Ismail al-Mahalawi of the army’s Anbar Operations Command said.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, al-Mahalawi said coalition aircraft had destroyed a vehicle mounted with an anti-aircraft gun to the immediate north of Ramadi, "killing an unspecified number of Daesh elements" late Thursday.

Coalition aircraft, he added, had also destroyed a Daesh weapons depot in the nearby Jarayshi area, "completely destroying it".

Coalition warplanes, al-Mahalawi said, had also struck a Daesh artillery battery used to shell the city of Hit some 70 kilometers west of Ramadi, "destroying the battery and killing all of its crew".

Large swathes of Iraq’s Anbar province -- which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- have been held by Daesh since 2014. Iraqi forces, however, have recently managed to retake the cities of Ramadi, Fallujah and Hit, among others.

In a related development Friday, five people were killed in capital Baghdad in separate acts of violence, local police sources said.

Police Brigadier-General Nazim al-Zamili told Anadolu Agency that three people had been killed by a bombing in the Al-Madain district south of Baghdad, while police had also found the bullet-ridden bodies of two unidentified men in Baghdad’s eastern Nasser district.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the two incidents, but Iraqi officials have blamed Daesh for similar attacks in the past.

Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh captured the northern city of Mosul and overran large swathes of territory in the northern and western parts of the country.