Iraqi forces break militants' siege of town
BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen on Sunday broke a six-week siege imposed by the Islamic State extremist group on the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amirli, as a suicide bombing killed 14 people in Anbar western province, officials said.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen on Sunday broke a six-week siege imposed by the Islamic State extremist group on the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amirli, as a suicide bombing killed 14 people in Anbar western province, officials said.
Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an army spokesman, said the operation started at dawn Sunday and the forces entered the town shortly after midday. Speaking live on state TV, Moussawi said the forces suffered "some casualties," but did not give a specific number. He said fighting was "still ongoing to clear the surrounding villages."
Breaking the siege was a "big achievement and an important victory" he said, for all involved: the Iraqi army, elite troops, Kurdish fighters, and Shiite militias.
About 15,000 Shiite Turkmen were stranded in the farming community, 105 miles north of Baghdad. Instead of fleeing in the face of the Islamic State's rampage across northern Iraq in June, the Shiite Turkmen stayed and fortified their town with trenches and armed positions.
State TV stopped regular programs and started airing patriotic songs following the victory announcement, praising the country's security forces.
The U.S. had started launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in August to prevent the insurgents from advancing on the Kurdish regional capital Irbil and to help protect members of the Yazidi religious minority stranded on Mount Sinjar, in Iraq's northwest, where U.S. planes also dropped humanitarian aid. The U.S. also launched airstrikes near Mosul Dam - the largest in Iraq - allowing Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake the facility, which had been captured by Islamic State fighters.
The U.S. Central Command said another airstrike Sunday near Mosul Dam destroyed an Islamic State armed vehicle.
German officials said Sunday that their country would soon begin sending enough high-end rifles, antitank weapons and armored vehicles to equip a brigade of 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters battling Islamic extremists in Iraq.
On Sunday night, Iraqi police officials said a suicide driver rammed an explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Ramadi city, killing 14 people, including nine police officers. About 27 people were also wounded in the attack.