Senior Iraqi Commander:

US Jets Use Daesh-Held Areas for Landing

TEHRAN (defapress) – A senior official with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units said the forces have hard evidence that a number of American jets had recently landed in areas still under the control of Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) in the Arab country.

News ID: 65558

Date: 12 August 2017 - 15:48

There are compelling evidence and images at our disposal indicating that US military aircraft regularly use Daesh-held areas for their landings, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy head of the Arab country’s Popular Mobilization Units, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, said, according to al-Forat News.

The United States launched a so-called campaign of airstrikes against Daesh in August 2014 after the terrorist group overran the key Iraqi city of Mosul and parts of the country's north and west.

In a recent move to support Daesh, the US military forces attacked a military base captured by Hashd al-Shaabi forces near al-Tanf, an area on Iraq-Syria border.

According to reports, 47 forces were killed in the US strike by artillery fire and smart bombs.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Elsewhere in his remarks, al-Mohandes said the northern city of Tal Afar, located 63 kilometers west of Mosul, has been besieged from different directions, adding that the popular forces are fully ready to launch a major offensive and retake it.

Hashd al-Shaabi is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of some 40 groups, which are mainly Shiite Muslims. The force reportedly numbers more than 100,000 fighters. Iraqi authorities say there are between 25,000 and 30,000 Sunni tribal fighters within its ranks in addition to Kurdish Izadi and Christian units.

The fighters have played a major role in the liberation of Daesh-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the city of Mosul ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.