IRAQ: Video released by the Iraqi Defence ministry shows Iraqi air force targeting ISIL locations and militant vehicles in Mosul, Samarra and Salahaddin provinces north of Baghdad

Record ID: 341754

  • Title: IRAQ: Video released by the Iraqi Defence ministry shows Iraqi air force targeting ISIL locations and militant vehicles in Mosul, Samarra and Salahaddin provinces north of Baghdad
  • Date: 16th June 2014
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 16, 2014) (REUTERS) SPOKESMAN OF BAGHDAD OPERATIONS COMMAND, BRIGADIER-GENERAL SAAD MAAN, STANDING BEHIND PODIUM DURING NEWS BRIEFING CAMERAMEN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SPOKESMAN OF BAGHDAD OPERATIONS COMMAND, BRIGADIER-GENERAL SAAD MAAN, SAYING: "Iraq security forces were able to kill 56 terrorists and wound 21 others over the past 24 hours." PEOPLE SE
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Conflict,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAC3S8WYC3RK1VFPYAQ915HB1FD
  • Story Text: Footage released by the Iraqi defence ministry on Monday (June 16) shows air strikes conducted by the Iraqi air force, targeting locations where the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants are believed to be.
    The Iraqi air force has increased air strikes in recent days, targeting the ISIL strongholds of Mosul, Samarra and Salahaddin, in response to the continuing advances being made by the ISIL fighters.
    The stunning onslaught by ISIL militants threatens to dismember Iraq and unleash all-out sectarian warfare across a crescent of the Middle East.
    ISIL seeks a caliphate ruled on mediaeval Sunni Muslim precepts in Iraq and Syria, and is also fighting Syria's Iran-backed government. It considers all Shi'ites to be heretics deserving death and has boasted of massacring hundreds of Iraqi troops who surrendered to its forces last week.
    ISIL fighters captured the mainly ethnic Turkmen city of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq overnight after heavy fighting on Sunday (June 15), solidifying their grip on the north.
    A spokesman for the Iraqi counter-terrorism forces said that Iraqi security forces killed dozens of ISIL militants over the past 24 hours.

    "Iraq security forces were able to kill 56 terrorists and wound 21 others over the past 24 hours," Brigadier-General Saad Maa, spokesman of Baghdad operations command, said on Monday.
    Iraq's army is holding out in Samarra, a Tigris city that is home to a Shi'ite shrine. A convoy travelling to reinforce the troops there was ambushed late on Sunday by Sunni fighters near the town of Ishaqi. Fighting continued through Monday morning.
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