Airstrike kills 14 Daesh militants in western Iraq

ANBAR, Iraq

At least 14 Daesh militants were killed in an Iraqi airstrike on Wednesday in the western Anbar province, according to an Iraqi military officer.

The strike targeted a Daesh bomb factory in the city of Qaem, Gen. Numan al-Zubai told Anadolu Agency.

He said Iraqi forces and a U.S.-led coalition fighting Daesh were continuing their airstrikes on western Anbar as part of efforts to expel the terrorist group from the area.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces dismantled scores of explosives left behind by Daesh militants in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, Bri. Gen. Khaled al-Dulaimi said.

After overrunning vast territories in both Iraq and Syria in mid-2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Iraqi military and a U.S.-led coalition.

In August, the group lost Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. And one month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.

Reporting by Sulaiman al-Qubaisi; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat;