Anbar (Iraq) – Two Iraqi army commanders were killed Thursday in a suicide attack claimed by Islamic State (IS) in the volatile western province of Anbar, where the extremist militia controls extensive territory.
The officers killed were Maj.Gen.l Abdel-Rahman Abu Regheef, the deputy commander of Anbar Military Operations, and Brig. Sefeen Abdel-Majeed, chief of the 10th Army Division.
There were conflicting reports about how the attack was carried out.
Azal al-Fahdawi, a member of the Anbar local council, said a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into a motorcade of the two commanders.
He said the commanders were killed and an unspecified number of other soldiers north of Islamic State-held Ramadi, Anbar’s capital.
However, the self-styled IS in Anbar Province claimed in an online statement that six of its `martyrdom knights’ drove four car bombs into a military command building north of Ramadi.
It said dozens of troops were killed, including the two commanders.
Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, said the deaths `will just increase our resolve and determination to rout the enemy.’
His government, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes and Shiite paramilitaries, has stepped up its fight in recent months to dislodge IS from its strongholds in the country’s mostly Sunni west and north.
IS in May overran Ramadi, 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, marking the militant Sunni group’s biggest victory in Iraq in a year.
Meanwhile, Denmark, a partner in the U.S.-led air coalition against IS in Iraq, said Thursday that it will temporarily pull back seven F-16 fighter jets.
They have taken part in airstrikes for almost a year against the radical group, but they are ageing and require repairs.
“We aim to redeploy them in 2016,” Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said in Copenhagen.
The jets have been based in Kuwait and only operated in Iraqi airspace.
IS also controls large commanders of territory in Syria.
The al-Qaeda splinter group has captured five villages in northern Syria near the border with Turkey from rival Islamist rebels, a monitoring group reported Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS was also making headway in its attempt to seize the strategic town of Mara on the outskirts of the northern province of Aleppo.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
IS has gained a lot of ground in recent months from troops of Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, and rival rebels in several parts of the war-torn country. (dpa/NAN)