Iraq liberates Hit center from Daesh occupation
Iraq’s elite forces have managed to push back militants of the Daesh Takfiri group from key areas of a city west of the country.
State television said on Friday that Iraq's counter-terrorism forces had reached the center of the town of Hit, and raised the Iraqi flag on top of a government building.
“We are still pursuing them. They have abandoned their families and fled,” a local commander said on state TV, adding that “within days” Iraqis will be celebrating the complete liberation of Anbar province, where Hit, a city with a pre-war population of 100,000, is located.
Fighting has been going on for over a week in Hit with government forces trying to dislodge militants from residential areas across the city. The progress was mainly hampered by the presence of thousands of civilians trapped inside the town.
State television said Iraqi forces have successfully evacuated more than 10,000 civilians from the town in recent days.
Other sources said Daesh militants had planted explosives on roads as well as in cars and buildings, further complicating the advance of government forces in the streets of Hit.
The liberation of Hit is the latest in a string of gains by the Iraqi military and allied volunteer fighters against Daesh. Iraqi forces recaptured Anbar’s provincial capital of Ramadi two months ago while an operation is also underway to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and Daesh's main stronghold in the north of the country.
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