Anbar’s Tribal fighters launched a wide operation to cleanse Rutba Desert from the extremist cells loyal to ISIS, as Kurdish officials refused the decision taken by the Iraqi parliament to come Kurdistan’s flag down in the conflicted province of Kirkuk, as its provincial council conducted a vote on Tuesday over the referendum to decide the province’s destiny.
A local source in Anbar Province revealed that tribal fighters, backed by the US-led international coalition, started an extensive operation to liberate al-Rutba desert from the Islamic State group, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.
The source said in a press statement that tribal fighters, backed by the international coalition forces, launched a wide-scale offensive to liberate the northeastern desert of Rutba.
These security forces will liberate more than 40 kilometers of the northeastern desert of Rutba, the source added on condition of anonymity. The international coalition will aid and support the tribal fighters during the offensive.
Noteworthy, Islamic State group usually uses the northwestern desert area of Rutba City to launch attacks on security forces, which in turn repulse the attacks and inflict heavy losses on the terrorist group.
Regarding operations in Mousl, sources revealed that the military operations have been suspended due to the weakness of the military support provided by the International Coalition during the recent period. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Haider Abadi appointed General Najm Al Jabori to lead the security issue in the city’s left bank instead of General Reyad Jalal.
The Iraqi Federal Police service said it will evacuate all residents of western Mosul’s Old City before launching wide military operations against Islamic State militants. Federal police chief Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that ground operations carried out by federal police supported by aircrafts and artillery are ongoing against Islamic State militants. The slow advances toward the Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque is ongoing, he added.
More than 1500 families were evacuated last week according to Jawdat who said that troops were encircling the Old City from three directions and that safe exits were being opened for civilians before the troops advance towards it. In related news, IS leader and six of his assistants were killed on Tuesday in a shelling in west of Mosul.
Federal Police jets supported by the artillery, according to Jawdat, killed IS leaders including Abu Muhajir al-Rusi, and six of his assistants in a direct strike against their headquarters at the medical center near the republic hospital in the Old City. Retaking the mosque would represent a major symbolic blow to the extremist group which has lost most of territories it held in Mosul since the beginning of the security campaign in October.
On the other hand, the provincial council of Kirkuk voted Tuesday for running a referendum on the province’s secession from Iraq and joining the autonomous Kurdistan Region, further heating up a dispute of sovereignty between Baghdad and Erbil.
Iraqi websites said the assembly made another vote turning down an Iraqi parliament decision which had annulled the province’s decision to raise Kurdish flags alongside Iraqi ones above government facilities there.
The flag raising decision last month by governor Najmuddin Karim stirred tensions with the government in Baghdad, which deemed the measure a breach of national unity.
A spokesperson of Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday the flag measure violated the Iraqi constitution and national unity.
Turkey, an ardent backer of Turkmen minority rights in Iraq, also voiced strong opposition to the step. Turkish press quoted Prime Minister Benali Yildirim saying his country would not accept any attempt to declare independence in northern Iraq and to incorporate Kirkuk into the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Kirkuk is one area where Kurdistan region disputes sovereignty with Iraq. Its population comprises Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen ethnicities.
Kurdistan gained autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of fierce fighting.
Both governments in Iraq and Erbil engaged in political spats over regions recaptured by Kurdish Peshmerga (army) troops from the Islamic State militants since campaigns against the group launched in October. While Kurdish politicians and MPs occasionally reiterated they were not going to cede those areas, Baghdad said it was expecting Kurdish troops to pull out after ISIS is eliminated.