“It’s an operation to liberate Zawiya village of Haditha district and Sagra village of Ana district.” Faruq al-Jughaifi, Commander of Haditha police forces told Rudaw.
The Iraqi army is also planning to liberate the two districts of Ana and Rawa in northwestern Anbar that fell to ISIS in 2014.
“Our forces launched a massive operation today, to retake western suburbs,” Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Muhammadi, Commander of the Jazeera Division of the Iraqi army told Anadolu agency on Thursday.
“ISIS targets Haditha district with Katyusha and mortar fires,” al-Jughaifi added, saying that they want to eliminate the threat on the districts and clear the area from the militants.
“We are aiming to push back the enemies from Haditha,” al-Jughaifi said.
An Iraqi commander told Rudaw on Tuesday that they had positioned a large number of troops in Haditha for the current and future operations.
Iraqi troops recaptured the two main cities of Anbar, Ramadi and Fallujah in December 2015 and June 2016 respectively, though pockets of resistance still remains in parts of the province.
