News / Iraq

Abadi meets army commanders prior to Hawijah liberation operation

Wednesday, 20 September 2017 3:03 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 20 September 2017 3:08 PM ]

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (R) shakes hands with a high-ranking military commander in the town of Makhmur, Iraq, on September 20, 2017. (Photo via Twitter)

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has met with high-ranking military commanders as government troops are preparing to launch a multi-pronged operation to liberate Hawijah town in the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk from Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

“The commander-in-chief of Armed Forces paid a visit to the town of Makhmur today, supervised the mobilization of forces, and learnt about plans to purge areas east of the Tigris River, the western countryside of Kirkuk and Hawijah from terrorists,” Iraq's Kurdish-language Rudaw television network cited a statement published by Abadi’s office.

Addressing reporters during a weekly press briefing in Baghdad on September 6, Abadi stated that government forces, in full cooperation with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, would soon launch an operation to liberate Hawijah.

Daesh terrorists took control of Hawijah after capturing Mosul and several other Iraqi cities in mid-2014.

Iraqi soldiers ride atop the turret of a Russian-made T-72 tank in this September 20, 2017 photo, as Iraqi forces advance towards the town of al-Shirqat, where Iraqi forces backed by Popular Mobilization Units are preparing to retake the militant-held city of Hawijah. (Photo by AFP)

Hawijah is one of four Iraqi towns still controlled by Daesh. The other three towns of al-Qa'im, located nearly 400 kilometers northwest of Baghdad near the Syrian border, Anah and Rawa are in Anbar province.

Makhmur lies in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, and Abadi’s visit to the town comes only a few days before an independence referendum that has seen strong opposition from the Baghdad government, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the United States and the United Nations.

Abadi has formally demanded suspension of the upcoming vote. The demand came after Iraq's Supreme Court on Monday ordered the deferral of the September 25 referendum to examine whether such a poll would be constitutional.

Iraqi Kurdish men take part in a rally in the semi-autonomous Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah on September 9, 2017, calling for the deferment of an independence referendum due to take place on September 25. (Photo by AFP)

On Saturday, the Iraqi prime minister said Kurdish authorities were “playing with fire” by planning to hold the independence referendum.

Iraqi forces liberate district in Anbar town

Elsewhere in the western Anbar province bordering Syria, Iraqi security forces liberated a district in the town of Anah.

Iraqi forces, backed by Popular Mobilization Units, advance in the village of al-Rayhaniyah, near the town of Anah in the vast western province of Anbar bordering Syria, on September 19, 2017, as they continue the operation to capture Daesh’s last strongholds in the province. (Photo by AFP)

The media bureau of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced in a statement that members of the Federal Police Force had taken control of the town's al-Abbasiein neighborhood.

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