Iraqi Army in Major Push against Daesh in the West
Local Editor
Iraqi forces launched a broad offensive to retake the city of Hit from Daesh [Arabic acronym for the terrorist "ISIS" group] in the western province of Anbar, a top commander said Saturday.
Led by the elite Counter-Terrorism Service, forces from the police, army and Popular Mobilization fighters were making a final push to retake Hit, some 145 kilometers west of Baghdad.
"They have begun a broad operation to liberate Hit and Kubaysa," Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun, the head of the al-Jazeera Operations Command, stated.
Kubaysa is a smaller town a few miles west of Hit, which the extremists have controlled since October 2014.
Relatively, after launching a final push against Daesh in provincial capital Ramadi late last year, Iraq's security forces established full control over the city last month.
Aid agencies have voiced concern over the fate of an estimated 35,000 civilians who have fled Hit and its surroundings in the run-up to this latest military offensive.
In parallel, the International Committee of the Red Cross said late Friday that thousands of freshly displaced people were stranded in areas where very little assistance is available.
Meanwhile, Daesh still controls vast areas of Anbar province near the borders with Jordan and Syria, as well as the city of Fallujah, which is only 50 kilometers from Baghdad.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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