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Iraqi forces Friday captured the biggest town under Islamic State group control in Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, driving another nail into the coffin of the jihadists’ self-styled caliphate.
Abadi hailed the “liberation of Al-Qaim in record time” in a statement, just hours after Iraqi troops backed up by local Sunni tribal militia fighters entered the key town on the border with Syria.
The strike, which was launched on a populated market, decimated a hotel complex and left many killed and injured.
According to reports, an airstrike launched by a Saudi jet, that struck Alaf market in Sana’a, killed 26 and left 9 others wounded.
Turkey-led militias in northern Aleppo province have asserted a clear intention to launch an offensive to capture the large town of Manbij, currently held by US-backed forces.
Yesterday, the Turkish-backed factions of the Free Syrian Army in northern Aleppo dispersed leaflets saying that Syrian rebels will seize the town of Manbij from US-backed forces “no matter what the cost is.”
Jihadists from the Islamic State group and fighters from Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition were locked in fierce clashes near Mosul on Tuesday, with nearly 30 reported dead, the coalition said.
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, was retaken from IS in July after a massive months-long offensive.
Clashes between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters broke out Friday as Iraqi units moved north of Kirkuk to the town of Altun Kupri.
Fighting began when Iraqi troops and Shia militias entered Altun Kupri in an operation “to impose law and order,” according to the Iraqi military.