Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft have decimated ISIL forces fleeing the Fallujah area, destroying more than 200 vehicles and killing dozens of militants, officials said on Thursday.
Advertisement
USA surveillance aircraft spotted the gathering of ISIS fighters and vehicles in a neighborhood southwest of Fallujah, west of the Tofaha Bridge, an area known to be a key ISIS outpost while the group controlled the city, defense official said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, after victory in Fallujah, said that Mosul would be next. The U.S. -led coalition again struck the convoy, bringing up the number of ISIS vehicles destroyed by coalition to 175.
Syrian rebels aided by USA -led airstrikes launched an offensive against an Islamic State stronghold near the Iraqi border on Tuesday, hoping to sever one of the extremists’ main transit links between the two countries, a rebel spokesman said. US officials estimated that about 55 ISIS vehicles were destroyed by USA airstrikes. The assault is part of a wider offensive by Iraqi forces against ISIL, which is now being driven back with the help of air support from a USA -led coalition.
Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, commander of the Iraqi army in Anbar, said: “Al-Hasai district, five kilometers [3.1 miles] south of Fallujah, is one of the most important strongholds for the militants of Daesh outside the center of Fallujah”. If the figure is confirmed, the strikes would be among the most deadly ever against the jihadist group. However, it was not clear how the dead were counted and identified.
Footage uploaded to YouTube on Friday by the Iraqi Defence Ministry showed a long stream of vehicles moving down a single lane road through the desert before it is attacked with missiles and machine gun fire.
The rebels said the operation was coordinated with Iraqi forces who were advancing on the crossing from the other side of the border.
“This is a desperate attempt on the part of the terrorists to flee to their areas in Al Qaim near the Syrian border and Tharthar”, Mr Mahalawi said. At the height of the group’s power, in 2014, the Islamic State controlled almost a third of Iraq, having blitzed across large parts of the country’s north and west and captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. Now the group is estimated to control 14 percent of Iraqi territory.
The move came almost four weeks after the start of a USA -backed offensive to liberate the city, which was the last major ISIS foothold in Iraq’s Anbar province.
The air base is near the city of al-Bukamal, where Daesh took control in 2014.
That attack occurred around 2 miles west of Amiriyah Fallujah, according to Rasool.
Fragments of the convoy were able to move on and some more vehicles were destroyed in subsequent strikes.
On Wednesday, Iraqi and coalition airstrikes also targeted a convoy near the city of Ramadi.
Advertisement
He estimates coalition strikes destroyed 55 of their vehicles.
