Iraq carries out air strikes on Daesh positions in Syria
Baghdad: iraq on thursday carried out air strikes on Daesh positions in Syria a week after Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said his country would defend itself from militant threats across the border.
Irai F-16 warplanes crossed into Syria to carry out the strikes after coordination with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s government, an Iraqi military spokesman said.
“Carrying out air strikes on Daesh gangs in Syrian territories is because of the dangers posed by said gangs to Iraqi territories and is proof of the improved capabilities of our armed forces,” the Iraqi military said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Abadi had said Iraq would “take all necessary measures if they threaten the security of Iraq,” referring to the militants who just three years ago overran a third of Iraq.
The prime minister declared inal victory over the militant group in December but it still poses a threat from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq.
surprise attack
Daesh group launched a surprise attack near a town in eastern Syria they had lost six months ago, killing at least 25 regime forces, a monitor said on Thursday.
At least 13 ighters were also killed in the attack which Daesh carried out near Mayadeen on Wednesday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
Mayadeen lies in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the western bank of the Euphrates River and is lanked by the vast Badia desert to its west and south.
A military source, however, denied any attack against positions of the Syrian army along the western bank of the Euphrates.
But intermittent bombardment on army positions from its eastern bank had prompted retaliation with suitable weapons, the source said.
The Us-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab ighters, control most of the territory to the east of the Euphrates, where a few villages are still under Daesh control.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said on Thursday morning “Daesh attempts to advance in the direction of the town of Mayadeen are ongoing” from the Badia desert. He said it was the “largest Daesh attack since they were expelled from the town” by regime forces and their allies in October 2017.