Baghdad: Daesh terrorists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday.
The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of Daesh in Anbar.
Brig. Gen Sa’ad Ma’an Ebrahim, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, told The Associated Press the attacks took place outside the Daesh-held city of Fallujah late Tuesday night.
Ebrahim added that the Daesh terrorists used a sandstorm that engulfed most of Iraq on Tuesday night to launch the deadly wave of bombings. He said it was not clear how many suicide attackers were involved in the bombings but they hit the military from multiple directions.
Syria’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his government is not pinning any hopes on the US-led coalition striking at Daesh militants in his country.
At a news conference in Damascus, Walid Al Mu’allem said the coalition was active in preventing the Kurdish town of Kobani from falling to the extremists last year but that this support seems to have “evaporated” after that.
The United States did nothing to prevent the ancient town of Palmyra in Syria or the province of Anbar in Iraq from falling into their hands, he said.
“We’re not pinning any hopes on that alliance and anyone who does is living an illusion,” Al Mu’allem added.
Al Mu’allem also said Iraq and Syria were fighting the same battle but added that security coordination between their two armies “has not reached the desired levels.”
The Iraqi operation to retake Anbar, which is said to be backed by Shiite militias and Sunni pro-government fighters, is deemed critical in regaining momentum in the fight against Daesh .
The extremists captured Ramadi in Iraq and the Syrian ancient town of Palmyra earlier this month, showing that it is able to advance in both countries despite months of UUS-led airstrikes. Capt. Andrew Caulk, a US Air Force spokesman in Qatar, told the AP it will continue to provide air support “to government-controlled Iraqi forces” throughout the country, including near Ramadi, where it has been carrying out airstrikes for several months.
