Thousands evacuated as Iraqi forces move on IS

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BAGHDAD, March 10, (Agencies): Iraqi forces retook a town from the Islamic State jihadist group in Anbar province Thursday and evacuated 10,000 civilians as they advanced up the Euphrates valley, a security spokesman said. “Counter-terrorism forces and army troops liberated the Zankura area in a swift military operation,” Sabah al- Noman, spokesman of the elite Counter- Terrorism Service, told AFP. “They evacuated 10,000 people who were transferred to a safe area,” he said. An army colonel in the region said they would be offered first aid and then taken to camps for displaced people. Zankura lies on a bend in the Euphrates river northwest of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province that Iraqi forces brought under full control last month.

The rural area around 125 kms (80 miles) west of Baghdad is on the way to Hit, a town which Iraqi forces have declared as their next target. Noman claimed 80 IS fighters were killed in the operation but gave no figure for casualties in government ranks. “Our forces also arrested 56 DAESH (IS) members who had shaved their beards and were trying to blend in with the fleeing families,” the spokesman said. Noman said the Iraqi flag was raised on the highest building in Zankura. The sprawling province of Anbar — which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — was at the heart of the “caliphate” that IS proclaimed in 2014.

The jihadist group still holds most of the province but the noose is tightening around some of its key bastions. The city of Fallujah, 50 kms (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is almost completely surrounded by a mix of Iraqi forces. Federal forces are also pushing down from Salaheddin province towards Haditha, a city in western Anbar which IS never took but has attacked relentlessly since 2014.

The US-led coalition, which has played a significant part in enabling the advance of government troops across Anbar, reported four air strikes in the Ramadi area on Wednesday. According to the International Organisation for Migration, 44 percent of the more than 3.3 million people displaced in Iraq since the beginning of 2014 are from Anbar.

Iraq’s military is once again trying to dislodge Islamic State group fighters from the vast Samarra desert, which stretches between newly recaptured territory in Anbar province and the ISheld northern city of Mosul. Yet, as operations move further away from the capital, government forces are increasingly plagued by logistical shortcomings.

Iraq’s minister of defense Khalid al-Obeidi on Wednesday toured Camp Speicher, a military base 80 miles (130 kms) north of the capital, Baghdad. Surrounded by a crowd of assistants and military officials, he carefully asked commanders about food supplies, weapons deliveries and training. “He’s very detail-oriented, during the previous administration the Iraqi military had a lot of issues with troops not being fed, in addition to, you know, the larger payroll issues,” said an official from the minister’s office. He was referring euphemistically to the entrenched corruption in the Iraqi military, which was exposed in the summer of 2014 when the army all but collapsed and Islamic State group fighters captured Mosul.

In addition to the tens of thousands of troops who fled in the face of the IS assault, more than 50,000 troops were later revealed to be ghost soldiers — nonexistent troops whose pay was pocketed by senior commanders. The ministry of defense official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. Following millions of dollars of investment, Iraq’s military is being tested once more.

Earlier this month, Iraqi troops pushed to retake territory northwest of Samarra, 60 miles (95 kms) from Baghdad, and cut IS supply lines in advance of an eventual push on Mosul. Iraqi officials say the fight was led by the Popular Mobilization Forces, the government-sanctioned coalition of mostly Shiite militia groups — who have proved to be one of the most effective fighting forces on the ground — but also involved the Iraqi military. The ground troops were backed by both coalition and Iraqi air strikes.

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