Iraqi forces have recaptured a strategic area north of the city of Ramadi in the restive province of Anbar from ISIL (also known as Daesh), a top Iraqi commander says.
Leader of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said on Friday that Iraqi security forces in cooperation with volunteer forces managed to clear the area of Nazim al-Tharthar of the ISIL militants, Iraq’s al-Sumaria satellite TV network reported.
It was also said that the liberation of the city lifted the ISIL siege on the Iraqi forces in the area.
The Iraqi army, with the the support of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish volunteer fighters, has been fighting ISIL to recapture Ramadi which is in the hands of the militants.
In a separate development, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced that as many as 40 militants were killed in Iraqi Air Force airstrikes in an areas west of Ramadi.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Saad Moen said that the air raids hit the positions of the group in the al-Hasba area, and that at least two leaders of the group were among those killed in the attacks.
The spokesman further said that some of the militants killed in the airstrikes were from other countries.
