Over 25 persons killed in booby-trapped houses, west of Anbar

Over twenty five persons were killed as booby-trapped houses exploded in western Anbar, an official said on Friday. “We called on authorities in question in the federal government and Anbar to dispatch team from a specialized company to remove the landmines,” Hussein Ali, mayor of Rawa town, told Baghdad Today. “The amount of explosives planted in the town is very huge and dangerous.”

“We cannot repatriate any displaced family to preserve their lives. Thus, we demand sending a specialized team to assist the military’s engineering brigade and comb the town from the war remnants,” he added. Ali indicated that all service authorities are completely destroyed. “In Rawa, there is only five police personnel.”

Iraqi troops retook Rawa from Islamic State members in November. Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

114 Iraqi civilians were killed, while 244 others were wounded as result of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts, according to a monthly release by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), issued on Wednesday.

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, coming in the first place with 177 civilian casualties (38 killed, 139 injured). Anbar province followed with 36 killed and 55 injured, and then Kirkuk with 18 killed and 33 injured.

In the same context, Iraqi troops have arrested two militants in an operation in kirkuk, the military media reported on Friday. “The military intelligence department managed to arrest two militants in al-Nasr district in Kirkuk,” the War Media Cell said in a statement. “Security troops continue their operations in Kirkuk and elsewhere,” it added.

On Thursday, Maj. Gen. Ali Fadel Umran, commander of Kirkuk Operations said six Islamic State members were killed in an operation in Abbassi region, west of Kirkuk. Earlier this week, two IS members were killed, while eight others were arrested in an operation launched to follow IS remnants who escaped toward north of Hawija, toward al-Zab region.

A government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition has been fighting, since October 2016, the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul. The Joint Operations Command announced in October the liberation of each of Hawija, Riyad and al-Rashad. Over 1,300 members were killed during offensives to free Hawija, while over 800 members were killed during the second phase of operations.

The offensive on Hawija began on 21 September and has involved army, police and special forces units, as well as the Shia-led paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces. The town fell to IS in June 2014, when the jihadist group seized control of much of northern and western Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a “caliphate”.

On the political side, The US Embassy in Iraq announced on Friday the return of the Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South-Central Asia to Baghdad, Knox Thames, while the latter pointed out that Washington is making efforts to protect religious diversity and vulnerable groups in Iraq.