The attacks occurred near the city of Ramadi which was liberated and cleared by Iraqi security forces last year
Iraqi military sources have stated that at least forty seven soldiers were killed in a series of attacks carried out by the Islamic State or ISIS near the important city of Ramadi.
The Al-Jazeera news channel reported that ISIS carried out the first attack during the night on the headquarters of the Rapid Deployment Force. The other attacks targeted military barracks in Qutainiyah and Zuwaiyah on Monday morning. The attack claimed the lives of 22 soldiers while 16 other security men were wounded.
These attacks came despite claims by Iraqi forces that the extremist group was retreating from the Anbar province. On the afternoon of Monday, two separate ISIS car bombers targeted and hit convoys belonging to the security forces. The attacks took place within the towns of Abu Taiban and Safiyrah which lies 30 kilometers from Ramadi, to the northwest.
The western city of Ramadi was under the control of the Islamic State until December last year when the Iraqi forces attacked and liberated it. Most of the city had been cleared since then. In another development, the Kurdish forces based in the north of Iraq captured an American national fighting for the Islamic State.
The Kurdish officers who captured the man said that the fighter was allegedly trying to escape the Islamic State. He handed himself over to the Peshmerga officers when they started shooting at him. The incident took place near the village of Golat.
A captain for the Peshmerga stated that his troops had seen the American hiding in grass. He was surrounded and taken into custody. He was heavily bearded and wearing black. As soon as he was surrounded by armed men, he began shouting that he was a foreigner.
There was no passport with the man but he did have an American driving license. He was speaking English and broken Arabic. Americans are working with the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities in order to determine the identity of the man.
Even after losing Ramadi to the Iraqi forces, the Islamic State still control the city of Fallujah. The group also boasts presence across the province. Further to the north, Islamic State is in control of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul. Iraq has seen a string of ISIS bombings in many different parts of the country during the past few days.
