Iraqi forces push Islamic State out of key city in Anbar province

Source: Washington Post

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces pushed Islamic State fighters from the western city of Hit on Monday, raising the Iraqi flag over the local municipal building and dealing another blow to the group’s weakening self-proclaimed caliphate, authorities here said.

Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service and Joint Operations Command confirmed that the government was in control of the center of the city, which is located on the Euphrates River in Anbar province, about 100 miles west of Baghdad.

But fighting reportedly still flared in at least some neighborhoods.

“I am now inside the government [headquarters] in Hit,” Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, said by telephone. “We defused the booby traps and raised the Iraqi flag. Now I can say, after we’ve taken this building, that Hit is completely liberated.”

<more>

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/islamic-state-recaptures-key-border-stronghold-from-syrian-rebels/2016/04/11/7f2bd1dc-ffce-11e5-9203-7b8670959b88_story.html