“At 5 o’clock this morning operations to liberate Anbar were launched”, the military statement read.
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There have been repeated government attempts to retake the province, including an assault announced after the fall of Ramadi that appeared to have made very little progress.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the offensive would “take revenge on IS criminals on the battlefield”, in a statement released on Monday. In May, IS seized Ramadi, the capital city of Anbar, which borders Syria where the group controls large amounts of territory.
The city’s liberation will choke off the militants’ supply lines.
Sources in the Anbar operations command said Iraqi forces faced fierce resistance from the insurgents, who deployed five suicide auto bombs and fired rockets to repel their advance on the city of Falluja.
The more sophisticated F-16s received on Monday are expected to enhance the Iraqi air force’s capacity, but with foreign aircraft in action every day since previous year, their delivery is not seen as a game-changer in the war against IS.
Another bomb in the Iskan district of western Baghdad killed two people, medical sources said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks thus far, but numerous deadly bombings across Iraq have been claimed by Islamic State jihadists seeking to gain more ground in the country.
Later Monday, officials with the American-led coalition said 29 airstrikes on Sunday hit 67 targets in Ramadi linked to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Air strikes are carried out daily by members of the global coalition against IS positions.
Iraq was “possibly going through the worst and most risky challenge to its territorial integrity, economic sustainability and human development capacity”, it said. According to the statement, in an ongoing military campaign the Islamic State’s top local leader in Fallujah, named Abu Shahab Al-Ordani, was arrested.
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Also in the Banook district, six people were killed and 15 injured in a vehicle bombing, police said.
