Iraqi government forces on June 21 dislodged the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) from two northern neighborhoods of Fallujah as an
Iraqi military commander claimed the month-long offensive to recapture
the city had left 2,500 ISIL militants dead.
The announcements
came just days after the government had declared the liberation of
Fallujah, the last bastion of ISIL in the sprawling western Anbar
province.
With aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi
special forces took control of the neighborhoods of al-Shurta and
al-Jughaifi, special forces’ Brig. Gen. Haider al-Obeidi told The
Associated Press.
He said Iraqi military engineers were clearing the streets and buildings of left-over bombs.
Teaming
up with paramilitary troops and backed by the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi
government forces launched the large-scale Fallujah operation in late
May. On June 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory
after special forces entered the city center, capturing government
buildings and the central hospital.
In Syria, U.S.’ Special
Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL Brett McGurk
tweeted that the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had
defeated ISIL counterattacks over the last 24 hours and was moving into
Manbij city limits, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
ISIL had launched a counter-attack, inflicting heavy casualties on the
U.S.-backed forces.
The monitor said the militants won back three
villages south of the besieged city in a surprise assault against
fighters from the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces. At least 28 SDF
fighters were killed.
ISIL has launched a counteroffensive in
Syria’s northern province of Raqqa, retaking wide areas the militants
recently lost to government troops, the Observatory said, adding that
the government forces have lost all territories they gained in Raqqa
province since launching their offensive in early June.
The
ISIL-linked Aamaq news agency posted a video showing the extremists in
control of Thawra oil field as warplanes strike nearby.
Meanwhile,
six Jordanian border guards were killed by a car bomb in a remote area
of the frontier with Syria on Tuesday during an attack launched from
Syrian territory, security officials said.
The explosives-laden
vehicle blew up a few hundred meters from a camp for Syrian refugees in a
desolate eastern area of Jordan where the borders of Iraq, Syria and
Jordan meet, a Jordanian army statement said.
