Iraqi forces have launched a broad offensive to retake the city of Hit from the Islamic State (IS) group in the western province of Anbar, a top commander said yesterday.
Led by the Counter-Terrorism Service, forces from the police, army and local tribal fighters were making a final push to retake Hit, 145km west of Baghdad.
“They have begun a broad operation to liberate Hit and Kubaysa,” head of al-Jazeera Operations Command Major General Ali Ibrahim Daboun said.
Kubaysa is a smaller town a few kilometers west of Hit, which the IS have controlled since October 2014.
Daboun said Iraqi aircraft and jets from the US-led international coalition were providing air support.
Al-Asad military air base, which houses a large contingent of US and other foreign military advisers, lies about 35km northwest of Hit.
After launching a final push against the IS in provincial capital Ramadi late last year, Iraq’s security forces established full control over the city last month.
Aid agencies have voiced concern over the fate of a about 35,000 civilians who have fled Hit and its surroundings in the run-up to this latest military offensive.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) late on Friday said that thousands of freshly displaced people were stranded in areas where very little assistance is available.
The organization said it was able to deliver aid for the first time on Friday to about 12,000 people west of Ramadi.
“We don’t know how they managed to survive. Repeated access is crucial in order to help the remaining thousands of people who urgently need humanitarian aid,” said Katharina Ritz, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq.
The IS still controls vast areas of Anbar province near the borders with Jordan and Syria, as well as the city of Fallujah, which is only 50km from Baghdad.
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