A USA military official said anti-ISIL coalition forces destroyed scores of vehicles and that the Iraqi army hit an unspecified number.
Advertisement
The rare concentration of Islamic State vehicles was spotted east of Ramadi moving westward when it was hit by a barrage of airstrikes from US and Iraqi aircraft, defense officials said.
It is believed the militants were trying to flee towards Syria and Mosul.
An Iraqi soldier inspects burnt trucks used by Islamic State militants after heavy clashes with Iraqi forces near Amiriyat al-Fallujah town, southwest of Fallujah, Iraq on June 29, 2016. An Iraqi pilot said in the same video that Iraqi forces had not hurt any women or children in the attack.
A senior Iraqi commander declared Sunday that Fallujah was “fully liberated” from ISIS militants after a more than month-long military operation.
At least another 60 ISIL vehicles were destroyed later by air strikes conducted by Iraqi and USA -led coalition aircraft on a convoy heading northwest of Fallujah, Anbar Operations Command chief Ismail Mahalawi told AFP. “No other force took part in the operation”, he said.
The effort to retake Fallujah forced thousands of residents to flee, resulting in overcrowded tent camps on the outskirts without shelter or water for many, according to the United Nations and humanitarian groups.
Al-Boukamal was considered the last remaining key supply and communications routes for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria between its branches in Iraq and Syria.
Since September 2014, the coalition has conducted about 300 strikes against oil-related facilities, infrastructure and equipment, he said, and last week the coalition conducted eight strikes in support of Tidal Wave II near Raqqa in Syria and Mosul and Qayyarah in Iraq.
On Thursday, an American spokesperson confirmed that coalition and Iraqi planes had attacked two ISIS convoys – one on late Tuesday night and a second on Wednesday. Garver said US and Iraqi airstrikes destroyed upward of 120 Islamic State vehicles.
Additional militants were killed and vehicles were destroyed by the Iraqi security on the ground.
Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said that “our heroes in the military aviation destroyed more than 200 vehicles”.
It is unclear why the Islamic State, now well aware of USA surveillance capabilities after two years of constant airstrikes, would mass in such a way that would allow for catastrophic aerial attacks. “We’re seeing that handover starting to take place” from the Iraqi Security Forces in control of Fallujah to the police and tribal forces, Garver said.
But territorial loses haven’t diminished the group’s ability to strike overseas.
It was not clear how the dead were counted and identified.
Turkey pointed the finger at Islamic State on Wednesday for a triple suicide bombing and gun attack that killed 42 people at Istanbul’s main airport, and President Tayyip Erdogan called it a turning point in the global fight against terrorism.
Advertisement
However, civilians are known to have been displaced in the area where the attack occurred. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
