Coalition forces have begun attacks in Iraq to free western Anbar and Huwayjah from the control of ISIS terrorists. These are the last two areas in the country where ISIS still holds power.
Throughout the morning, Iraqi forces cleared 11 villages of ISIS terrorists. The attacks on the key city follow recent successful battles by Iraqi forces in and around Tal Afar, Akashat, Haditha, and Rayhanna.
“The rapid, recent success of the Iraqi security forces points to [their] momentum in the campaign to destroy ISIS in Iraq,” said U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, in the press release.
“ISIS has never been capable of providing effective governance or services that benefited the people under its rule,” he said. “Its defeat in Iraq further demonstrates ISIS is an organization in decline, whose leaders are no longer capable of effective military command and control.”
Dillon said in a video “the progress made against ISIS throughout Iraq is due to the combined efforts of the Iraqi security forces working together.”
“Together, all these forces have beaten ISIS decisively and repeatedly,” he said.
While the operations move forward in Iraq, similar operations under the coalition are moving forward against ISIS territory in Syria.
Dillon said coalition and Russian military officials recently met face-to-face to discuss their operations, and to ensure neither side attacks the other and to clear any frictions as they move forward.
Russia has allied with Assad government forces in Syria, and has in the past attacked other groups in the region fighting ISIS. Thus the operations in Syria are slightly more complex, and require what Dillon referred to as “de-confliction efforts” so that all sides can focus on defeating ISIS.
In Syria, the Syrian Defense Forces of the coalition have begun “anti-ISIS clearance operations” in Dayr Az Zawr province, northeast of Dayr Az Zawr city. Dillon noted that in the two weeks since the operations began, coalition forces have taken more than 193 square miles of territory.
“We still expect tough fighting ahead, but with our partners’ battlefield successes, increased capacity and continued support from a 73-member coalition, we will keep the pressure on until ISIS is defeated in both Iraq and Syria,” Dillon said.
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