29 ISIS militants killed in Iraqi air raids

At least 29 Islamic State (ISIS) militants were killed in Iraqi air raids against the group’s positions in remote western parts of Iraq’s Anbar province.

The heavily populated city of Mosul is by far the largest center Islamic State militants control in Iraq or Syria. An Iraqi convoy tours the front line in their fight against the Islamic State group. (Photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“Using intelligence and coordinating with [Iraq’s] joint operation command Iraqi jets afflicted major blows to two ISIS positions in the areas of Qaim and Rawah,” said the Iraqi Defense Ministry’s joint operation command.

“In the first strike, a meeting of the ISIS leaders in Qaim area was targeted, killing 16 militants and officials,” the statement went on to explain.

Additionally, an ex-Baathist military official named “Abu Ahmed Janoubi who escaped the Abu Ghraib prison was among the slain militants,” as were “Abu Sulaiman Chechen, head of the Islamic State’s Khurasan regiment and Sheikh Jamal Turki, one of those escaped Abu Graib prison in the past…”

Qaim and Rawah are Iraqi towns located nearly 400km northwest of the capital Baghdad near the Syrian border along the Euphrates River.

Iraqi army vehicle and a helicopter deploy in the front line in al-Anbar desert, 50 kms north east of Haditha, where the country’s forces are fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, on March 9, 2016. Counter-terrorism forces, soldiers, police and allied paramilitaries are taking part in an operation launched on March 1, which is backed by artillery and both Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft, aimed at retaking areas north of Baghdad, according to the Joint Operations Command. / AFP / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images) (Photo by Ahmend al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

In the second ISIS position “the Iraqi air force targeted a training camp, killing 13 militants and wounding 12 others.”

Although the Iraqi army backed by US aircraft retook a vast majority of the provincial capital Ramadi from ISIS seven months after it fell to the ISIS there are still areas in the westernmost parts of Anbar province, namely Qaim, where the group is still present.

Source: Erbil/Iraq- Rudaw News – 04 April 2016