(MENAFN- Arab Times) Islamic State fighters stormed a town in Iraq's western Anbar province on Saturday, killing at least 19 policemen and trapping others inside their headquarters, in the latest attack in the desert region where it controls large amounts of territory, officials said.
Islamic State seized the town of al-Wafa, 45 km (27 miles) west of Anbar's capital Ramadi on Saturday after starting its assault early on Friday. With the capture of al-Wafa, Islamic State now controls three major towns to the west of Ramadi, including Hit and Kubaisa. Islamic State and government forces have been bogged down in a months-long battle for Ramadi.
Al-Wafa fell in a surprise attack that drew fresh attention to the Iraqi government's struggle to arm Sunni tribes in western Iraq who are fighting Islamic State. "Police forces have been fighting Islamic State fighters since Friday, but lack of ammunition forced it to retreat and losing the town. I'm frustrated because we were left alone without support," said Hussain Kassar, the town's mayor. Police forces backed by few members of governmentpaid Sunni tribal fighters tried to prevent the militants from crossing the sand barrier surrounding the town, but were overwhelmed when sleeper cells from inside open fired on them, the mayor and a police officer said.
Police forces and the pro-government Sunni fighters were forced to retreat to a nearby police-brigade headquarters bordering their town. "We are trapped inside the police 18th brigade. Islamic State managed to surround us today. If no government forces were sent to help us then we will be exterminated," the mayor, who was with the police forces that withdrew from al-Wafa, said by telephone.
Elsewhere in western Anbar, Islamic State militants executed at least 21 Sunni tribal fighters on Friday after capturing them near al-Baghdadi town on Wednesday, local officials and tribesmen said on Saturday. Islamic State has besieged al-Baghdadi, also to the west of Ramadi, since October. All the bodies had bullet wounds to the head and chest and were dumped inside an orchard near the Islamic-State controlled town of Kubaisa.
The radical Sunni Muslim militants have captured swathes of western and northern Iraq, including the north's biggest city, Mosul, in June. They now hold large territory from western Anbar and Nineveh provinces that extends across the border into Syria. Meanwhile, Islamic State group militants shot down an Iraqi military helicopter, officials said Saturday, killing the two pilots onboard and raising fresh concerns about the extremists' ability to attack aircraft amid ongoing US-led coalition airstrikes.
The attack happened late Friday in the Shiite holy city of Samarra, about 95 kms (60 miles) north of Baghdad. A senior Defense Ministry official told The Associated Press the Sunni militants used a shoulder-fired rocket launcher to shoot down the EC635 helicopter on the outskirts of the city. An army official corroborated the information. Both spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.
The EC635, built by Airbus Helicopters, is used for transportation, surveillance and combat. The militants shot down at least two other Iraqi military helicopters near the city of Beiji in October. Some fear the militants may have captured ground-toair missiles capable of shooting down airplanes when they overran Iraqi and Syrian army bases this summer. European airlines including Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Air France, US carrier Delta Air Lines and Dubai-based Emirates changed their commercial flight plans over the summer to avoid Iraqi airspace.
The Islamic State group holds about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-styled caliphate. In Syria, meanwhile, an activist group and a jihadi website said the Islamic State group's police force beheaded four men in the central province of Homs for blasphemy. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the four were beheaded Friday in the province's east, without elaborating. A jihadi website said the "Islamic police in the state of Homs" carried out a court sentence against the four in the presences of onlookers.
Grisly photos posted on the website showed each of the four blindfolded men kneeling, their hands tied behind their backs, as a masked man in a black uniform hit their necks with a cleaver. The Islamic State group governs its territory according to its radical, violent interpretation of Shariah law. It has carried out other mass killings and beheadings, often recorded and posted online. In other news, Saadi Abdul-Rahman was recently forced to pull his three children out of school in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Islamic State militants have ruled with an iron fist since June.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.