Iraq said on Monday (January 11) that its air force targeted and destroyed Islamic State targets in the provinces of Salahuddin and Anbar.
A statement by the Ministry of Defence said that Iraqi fighter jets conducted air strikes against the Islamic State near and in the city of Falluja in Anbar province.
The statement did not say when the air strikes were carried out, but it said that it caused Islamic State heavy losses in lives and material.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday (January 9) that Iraq carried out more sorties against Islamic State than the U.S.-led coalition amid criticism that the military’s recapture of Ramadi had relied too heavily on devastating coalition air strikes.
Iraq’s army claimed its first major success against Islamic State last month when it recaptured the western city from Islamic State, with air support from the coalition. Until then, it was the Iran-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias that were leading the fight against the hardline Sunni militants.
Much of Ramadi, where nearly half a million people once lived, lies in rubble eight months after the army fled in the face of Islamic State. The coalition launched more than 600 air strikes in the area over the past six months, while officials estimate the militants planted hundreds of bombs which impeded the Iraqi forces’ advance and is delaying the return of displaced civilians.
Baghdad has sought to redress a lack of air power by purchasing F-16 fighter jets from the United States, but deliveries have been slow because of security concerns after the Islamic State offensive in 2014. Four F-16s arrived in Iraq in July to join operations in Anbar.
The international coalition has flown more than 60,000 sorties in Iraq and neighbouring Syria since it began bombing Islamic State in mid-2014, its spokesman, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, said. Around three-quarters of all strikes occurred in Iraq, he added. (Reuters)
