ANBAR, Iraq
At least 30 fighters from the Daesh militant group were killed in Iraq’s western Anbar province on Thursday by airstrikes carried out by a U.S.-led coalition, local security sources have said.
“Coalition airstrikes struck Daesh positions in Anbar, killing at least 23 Daesh militants and destroying at least five of the group’s vehicles,” Ali Ibrahim of the Iraqi army-linked Al-Jazeera and Badia Operations Command (JBOC) told Anadolu Agency.
In a separate development, seven Daesh fighters were killed in ongoing coalition operations in Anbar’s city of Fallujah, an Iraqi security official said Thursday.
Iraq has suffered a security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh overran the northern Mosul province and declared it part of its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.
A number of massacres perpetrated by Daesh last year – along with the forced deportation of minority populations from areas under its control – led to the establishment of a U.S.-led international coalition last September to combat the extremist group.
In the nine months since, the coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against Daesh targets in both Iraq and Syria.
