Islamic State kills Iraqi forces in sparsely populated Anbar desert
Attacks and unexploded ordnance continue to reap victims in Iraq’s vast western desert as security officials deny increased risks associated with a massive recent jailbreak across the border.
BAGHDAD – The deaths of several soldiers in the western Anbar desert and attacks further south in the same province have drawn attention to the vast expanses that were long a hideout for insurgents.
Although the danger had diminished in recent years, a Feb. 8 explosion reportedly killed at least three soldiers and one civilian, as well as injuring others and destroying the military vehicle in the desert near Rawa.
Several attacks have meanwhile recently been carried out near Rutba in the southern part of the Anbar desert, not far from Iraq’s border with Jordan.
Some claimed that the soldiers near Rawa had been escorting Kuwaiti or Qatari hunters and that the civilian killed had been the local guide. Questions to security officers had not been answered by the time of publication.
