Iraqi forces invaded on Wednesday the first of three Islamic State bastions in western Anbar and near the borders with Syria, military and paramilitary sources were quoted saying. Iraqi forces invaded the town of Annah, hours after recapturing neighboring Rayhanna area, a military source told Baghdad Today. He said troops invaded the town from the Shuqaq al-Sakaniya (residential apartments) entrance, having pounded IS locations with rockets.
Abdullah al-Jugheifi, a senior commander of mobilization forces backing the government troops, was quoted saying that government troops took over al-Senaa and Shuqaq neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said warplanes from the United States-led coalition killed 16 IS members and destroyed an ammunition storehouse in two raids on Annah.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the launch of an operation to clear Islamic State havens in western Anbar, starting with the town of Annah. He promised “a new victory”, adding that IS “will not reap but a humiliating defeat and death”. Iraqi joint troops managed earlier this week to liberate Akashat region, between Rutba town, on borders with Jordan, and Qaim, on the borders with Syria.
Anbar’s western towns of Annah, Qaim and Rawa have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it occupied one third of Iraq to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. Fighter jets from the Iraqi army and the international coalition regularly pound IS locations in the province.
On the other hand, Iraqi Federal Police artillery bombarded Islamic State locations in Salahuddin preparing for an imminent invasion of the group’s havens on the province.
The service’s chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said artillery forces pounded IS locations in the eastern side of the city of Shirqat early Wednesday, preparing to invade the town within the coming few hours from several directions.
“Hundreds of militants are bastioned in an area of nearly 800 square kilometers, relying on combat tactics that are exposed to our forces, and resort to booby-trapped cars, suicide attackers and snipers,” Jawdat said. “Our drones and army warplanes continue to target  defense positions of the enemy,” he added.
Iraqi network NRT quoted military sources on Tuesday saying that security operations to retake IS-held areas in Shirqat and Kirkuk’s Hawija would be launched simultaneously with current offensives targeting IS holdouts in western Anbar. They said that while Shirqat’s liberation would be entrusted to Federal Police, Hawija and would be the mission of the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Rapid Response Forces.
Since the Iraqi government, backed by a United States-led coalition and paramilitary troops, launched in 2016 a wide-scale campaign to retake areas the group had held since 2014, government troops have managed to recapture Mosul, Islamic State’s former capital in Iraq, early July and Tal Afar, a town west of Mosul, by the end of August. IS has waged occasional attacks on civilians and security inside Salahuddin and on the borders with Diyala province over the past months.
War on ISIS Update: Drones killed two senior Islamic State leaders in Salahuddin province on Tuesday, according to a local source who spoke in a press statement. Iraqi news website SNG said  the pair was killed when a drone pounded their truck on a farm road on the outskirts of Shirqat. One of the two killed was an assistant to the group’s security commander in eastern Shirqat, while the other was a chief vigilante in the town’s countryside.