The Islamic State (ISIS) group on Monday returned to the desert town of Rutba in western Iraq, less than a day after vacating it, officials said.
The mayor of the remote town in Anbar province had warned when ISIS pulled out that the jehadis organisation may just be testing the population’s allegiance.
“Daesh (ISIS) has re-established its control on the city of Rutba... Which it had left the previous day,” said a senior officer in the Jazeera Operations Command in charge of the area.
“Daesh came back from Al-Qaim with armoured vehicles and artillery,” the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They deployed them on the outskirts of the town and at the main entrances, as if to defend it from any attack by the security forces,” he said. “However, Daesh’s foreign leaders previously based in Rutba did not return,” he said.