BREAKING Rapid Intervention Squads Just DEPLOYED
Source: https://goo.gl/sgi5Xz
Anbar, IRAQ – Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered to form multiple rapid intervention squads in the western province of Anbar as confrontations with militants seem to recur over the recent period, Iraqi News reports.
IkhNews website quoted Qatari al-Obaidi, a senior commander of the tribal mobilization forces in Anbar, saying Wednesday that Abadi, the supreme commander of the armed forces, made directives to form four rapid intervention regiments of the force to assist in security work alongside government troops.
According to Obaidi, the regiments will consist of 600 fighters each, will receive training by government forces and will be supplied with modern arms and combat vehicles. He noted that “the new squads will answer to the prime minister and subordinate security officials, and will be tasked with preserving security against Islamic State militants”.
Meanwhile, Iraq is carrying out massive air raids inside the Syrian territories to eliminate chief of the Islamic State (ISIS) group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi lawmaker announced to reporters.
MP Abdel Aziz Hassan, the rapporteur of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee, told SNG agency that the federal government in Baghdad received intelligence reports about the presence of a number of ISIS leaders at a border area between Iraq and Syria, Iraqi News reports.
According to Hassan, “Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is expected to be at one of ISIS sites inside Syria,” adding that the Iraqi government will seek Syria’s approval first before launching the raid.
Also, as many as 36 Islamic State (ISIS) militants were killed after US-led coalition Iraqi warplanes targeted their terrorist hotbed located in Syria, a spokesman for the Iraqi Security Media Council was quoted as saying.
Alghdad Press quoted Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool as saying in a statement that Iraqi Air Forces launched a series of airstrikes on Syrian territories using F-16 jets to eliminate Islamic State terrorists, who were planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Iraq.
According to the statement, the air raids left 36 IS militants dead, including six senior leaders who were gathering at one of their hotbeds inside Syria.
The Islamic State group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” from Mosul city.
Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it.
Despite the group’s crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq last December, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country.