Several Iraqi Army Troops Killed in US Choppers' Raid in Anbar Province

TEHRAN (defapress)- A number of Iraqi army forces were killed and several more were wounded in an assault by a US military helicopter West of the town of al-Ramadi in Anbar province, an Iraqi media outlet reported on Saturday.

News ID: 68304

Date: 27 January 2018 - 15:13

The Arabic-language Sumeriyeh news reported that the US chopper targeted al-Baghdadi region West of al-Ramadi in Anbar province, killing seven and wounding 11 others, including several Iraqi servicemen.

In the meantime, al-Mayadeen reported that 8 people, including an intelligence officers of al-Baghdadi center and 5 security forces, were killed and 20 more were injured in the US chopper attack.

A high-ranking Iraqi security official said earlier this month that the government troops, supported by allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, succeeded to purge more than half of the desert areas in the country’s Western province of Anbar of ISIL.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Arabic-language al-Sabah al-Jadid daily newspaper, Chairman of Anbar Provincial Security Council Naeem al-Kaoud said security forces and volunteer fighters, commonly known as Hashd al-Shaabi, cleansed over 80 percent of Anbar desert areas of the extremists following multi-pronged military operations there.

“The troops also destroyed several ISIL hotbeds and remotely detonated four armored vehicles, which were used by the militant group,” he added.

Kaoud went on to say that ten more people were also arrested on suspicion of joining ISIL terror group.

“Although the militants hotbeds were built underground, the troops were able to destroy them after receiving intelligence reports on their locations,” the senior security official pointed out.

“The military operation, backed by the Iraqi Air Force, comes as part of ongoing efforts to eliminate ISIL militants on the country’s borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan,” Kaoud noted.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared the end of military operations against the ISIL group in the Arab country.

ISIL began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks. Iraqi forces then launched operations to eliminate ISIL and retake lost territory.