A 38-year-old man living in Sweden who fought the Islamic State alongside Iraqi forces has been convicted by a court for war crimes after he posed in photos alongside the corpses of Islamic State fighters. The Örebro District Court sentenced the
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Saturday the end of a three-year war by Iraqi forces to drive the Islamic State jihadist group out of the country.
BAGHDAD — Clashes broke out early Monday in northern Iraq as Iraqi forces moved to recapture Kurdish-held oil fields and a military base near the city of Kirkuk, setting the stage for a battle between two U.S. allies.
HAWIJA, Iraq — Iraqi forces retook one of the Islamic State terror group’s last two enclaves in the country on Thursday, overrunning the longtime insurgent bastion of Hawija after a two-week offensive.
Iraqi forces have driven the Islamic State from central Tal Afar and its historic citadel, they said Saturday, placing them on the verge of fully recapturing one of the last IS strongholds in the country.
Residents of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa live in terror, trapped as a massive human shield in the Islamic State’s de facto capital ahead of the final battle with US-backed opposition forces for the militant group’s last major urban stronghold.
Elite Iraqi forces battled house by house in the Old City of Mosul on Saturday, inching towards the mosque where the Islamic State group proclaimed its “caliphate” in 2014, a spokesman said.
Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is reported to have abandoned Mosul, leaving local commanders behind to lead the battle against Iraqi forces advancing in the city.
Iraqi forces backed by jets, drones and gunships attacked Mosul airport Thursday, a key step in a renewed offensive against jihadists defending their stronghold on the city’s west bank.
The U.S. military is not in Iraq “to seize anybody’s oil”, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, before arriving on an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Monday.
Iraqi forces launched an offensive on jihadists defending Mosul’s west bank Sunday, in what could be the most brutal fighting yet in a four-month-old operation on the city.
Three men set up a fence and a ribbon of yellow and black crime scene tape around a site south of Iraq’s Mosul, marking a mass grave of jihadists’ victims.
Iraqi security forces are preparing to advance toward Mosul airport on the city’s southern edge to increase pressure on Islamic State militants fighting troops who breached their eastern defenses, officers said on Thursday.
Iraqi forces fought their way into jihadist-held Mosul on Tuesday as a top commander said the “true liberation” of the city from the Islamic State group had begun.
Iraqi forces fought their way into jihadist-held Mosul on Tuesday as a top commander said the “true liberation” of the city from the Islamic State group had begun.
Elite Iraqi forces were poised Tuesday for a first push into Mosul, after the prime minister warned jihadists who hold the city they have no choice but to surrender or die.
Islamic State group fighters were shaving their beards and changing hideouts in Mosul, residents said, as Iraqi forces moved ever closer to the city Wednesday and civilians fled in growing numbers.
The United Nations says it bracing for the world’s biggest and most complex humanitarian effort in the upcoming battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which could make up to 1 million people homeless and see civilians used as human shields or even gassed.
A powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric whose militiamen battled US forces after the 2003 invasion has said that hundreds more American troops being sent to Iraq are “a target for us”.
Iraqi forces recaptured a northern air base from the Islamic State group on Saturday, a victory hailed by the prime minister as a key step ahead of the long-awaited operation to retake the northern city of Mosul.
Iraqi forces on Sunday recaptured the last district of Falluja held by Islamic State militants and the commander of the operation declared the battle over following a month of fighting.
The Jerusalem Post reports: Iraqi forces opened a second front on Saturday in preparation for an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, a day after government troops declared victory over the militants in Falluja. Elite counter-terrorism forces and two
BAGHDAD—Iraqi special forces on Fallujah’s southern outskirts have halted offensive operations against Islamic State on that front, army and police officials said Thursday, as authorities struggled over how to evacuate and protect civilians being held as human shields by the extremist group.
Iraqi forces have recently stalled offensive operations against Islamic State (ISIS/IS/ISIL) jihadists at Fallujah’s outskirts, as concerns over the ultimate fate of trapped civilians and resistance from the jihadist group slowed their advance.
Iraqi security forces recaptured the western city of Hit in Anbar province from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
