Security forces rout IS fighters

WASHINGTON: Iraqi security forces routed Islamic State (IS) fighters at a key hamlet in the first major fighting since pushing them from the strategic city of Ramadi, a senior Defence official said.

The battles took place near Barwana, in western Anbar province. Fighters from the IS, also known as Isil or Isis, began attacking the town with car bombs and mortars on Jan 3. They have used the open desert region as a staging area for attacks on Haditha, site of a major hydroelectric dam.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because officials were not authorised to speak publicly about the battle.

The victory could be seen as “proof of concept” for the US strategy to back local ground forces with air strikes and advisers, said Nicholas Heras, a researcher with the Middle East Security Program at the Centre for a New American Security.

In Iraq, forces such as the Counter Terrorism Service are viewed as less sectarian than some elements of the Shia-led government. The idea is for them to dislodge IS fighters, and turn the areas over to local Sunni forces to hold and govern.

“We should expect more of this model, with a community-by-community approach, because that is how the war in Sunni areas against Isis will be won,” Mr Heras said. “Rather than one big offensive push, it will be a series of smaller territorywinning, and then territory-holding with local forces, offensives that erode Isis’ communal base of power.”

In Barwana, a force of several hundred Iraqi security forces, led by a small battalion of its elite Counter Terrorism Service, rallied soldiers from Iraqi Army’s 7th division and Sunni tribal fighters to defend the town, said the official who was not authorised to speak publicly about the battles.

The Iraqi security forces first set up defences for Barwana, bolstering local forces, the official said. Within days, they began mounting a counter-assault. They chased a force of hundreds of IS fighters more than 10km.

It is an area of western and northern Iraq that IS seized in a blitz in the summer of 2014. That included Mosul, Iraq’s secondlargest city.

The IS fighters retreated in a rout after 150 had been killed, the official said. The remaining 60 or so fighters were killed in US airstrikes. Those strikes were noted in a Central Command rundown of bombing runs conducted against the IS on Jan 10.

Iraqi forces appear to have suffered two killed and a few others wounded in the fighting, the official said.