Fierce clashes and airstrikes against positions of Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq’s Anbar province on Wednesday killed 61 people and wounded 66 others, a provincial security source said.
The security forces and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) carried out attacks on IS positions in Hitawiyn area south of the IS-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, leaving 15 militants dead and seven others wounded, while 10 soldiers and allied militiamen were killed and 13 others wounded, the source told Xinhua news agency.
Five more IS militants were killed and three others wounded when an army helicopter gunship pounded a building at a village northeast of the militant-seized town of Garma, some 10 km east of Fallujah, the source said. Meanwhile, the ISIS militants fired mortar rounds on al-Mazraa military base east of Fallujah, killing a soldier and wounding four others, the source added.