IRBIL, Iraq: 40 soldiers killed, 68 captured after fighting with ISIS
The attack occurred during a siege on Sijir on Sunday. About 700 soldiers
fled the area following the attack, an anonymous official said. A car bomb
in Baghdad also killed at least 12 people on Monday.
IRBIL, Iraq A wave of suicide bombings by Islamic State militants in
western Iraq has killed 40 soldiers amid waning efforts by security forces
to retake territory from the Sunni extremist group, a senior Iraqi commander
said Monday.
The attacks, which occurred on Sunday in the town of Sijir, 70 kilometers
(43 miles) west of Baghdad, dealt a heavy blow to government efforts to rein
in the militants whose rampage has seized much of the countrys north and
west this summer even as Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters are starting to
get training by Iraqs Western allies in the battle against the Islamic
State group.
In addition to the 40 troops killed in the suicide bombings, 68 Iraqi
soldiers were apparently captured by the Islamic State group in Sijir and
have likely been taken to the nearby city of Fallujah, said Gen. Rasheed
Fleih. There has been no communication with any of the soldiers since their
capture Sunday, Fleih said.
The militants launched the massive wave of attacks, involving several
suicide bombings on the Iraqi troops stationed in Sijir on Sunday, sparking
clashes, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Following the attacks,
the Iraqi military withdrew 700 more troops stationed in the area, he added.
Iraqi police officials say a car bomb detonated in a busy commercial
district in central Baghdad has killed at least 12 people.
Officials say the bombing took place in the eastern Baghdad district of Ur
on Monday evening.
The explosion also wounded at least 25 people.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on the
condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the
media.
Following their battlefield successes in both Iraq and neighboring Syria,
fighters with the Islamic State group - among them many Iraqi nationals -
re-entered Iraq through the countrys western Anbar province, engaging in
fierce battles with the Iraqi military. In this Sunni-majority territory,
the group quickly capitalized on long-standing grievances against the
Shiite-led government in Baghdad, earning support from local populations.
Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, were able to
retake the strategic Mosul Dam and several small towns since airstrikes
began. However, serious challenges remain, since many of the Islamic State
fighters have taken refuge in busy cities with high civilian populations,
such as Fallujah and Mosul.
In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni militant group have
begun receiving training from Western allies, including the United States,
as they seek to beef up their capabilities, a top Kurdish security official
said Monday.
Helgurd Hikmet, general director of the ministry overseeing Kurdish military
forces known as peshmerga, said that France, Italy and Germany are also
among countries providing training to help Kurdish forces use new machine
guns, mortars, rockets and demining robots they have received.
We asked all our allies, when they provided us with new weapons, that these
weapons need training, Hikmet told The Associated Press. So now all the
allies that provided us with those weapons are providing us with training.
The U.S. launched airstrikes and humanitarian missions in August to aid
Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq.
Last week, the French joined in the aerial campaign. A number of European
countries have also committed to arming the Kurds and providing humanitarian
support for more than a million people displaced by the onslaught of the
Islamic State group.
U.S. forces working with the peshmerga are part of the advise-and-assist
teams that have been in Irbil, the provincial capital of the semi-autonomous
Iraqi Kurdish region, for several weeks. The U.S. has also provided
equipment against roadside bombs and other sophisticated artillery to the
Kurdish fighters.
After seizing Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, in June, militants with the
Islamic State group waged an aggressive offensive across northern Iraq,
forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes and coming dangerously close
to heavily populated cities in Iraqs Kurdish region.
Just north of Baghdad, gunmen broke into the house of an anti-militant Sunni
fighter, killing his two sons and a daughter, the police said. The Sunni
fighter was wounded along with his wife. He was a member of Sahwa, a Sunni
militia that joined U.S. troops in the fight against Iraqs al-Qaida branch
at the height of Iraqs insurgency in 2007 and 2008.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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