ISIS suicide attacks in Iraq's Anbar kill 17 troops
ISIS extremists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops in a major blow to government efforts to dislodge the militants from the sprawling Sunni heartland, an Iraqi military spokesman said Wednesday, The Associated Press reports.
The attacks came just hours after the Iraqi government announced the start of a wide-scale operation to recapture areas under the control of ISIS in Anbar.
Brig. Gen Saad Maan Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the attacks took place outside the ISIS-held city of Fallujah late the previous night.
The militants struck near a water control station and a lock system on a canal between Lake Tharthar and the Euphrates River where army forces have been deployed for the Anbar offensive, he said.