Iraqi forces launch offensive on Khalidiya Island, east Anbar

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Saturday, Iraqi security forces and Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabi launched a new offensive on the peninsula of Khalidiya Island to liberate it from the Islamic State (IS).

The Iraqi army, in cooperation with Hashd al-Shaabi militia, attacked the island of Khalidiya from four fronts, Ali al-Badri, Head of Iraqi Army Cooperation Center, told a Kurdish news outlet on Saturday.

The island is located in the north of Khalidiya city, east of Anbar Province, 80 kilometers from the west of Baghdad.

People who live in the area are predominantly Sunni Arabs, especially from the al-Dulaimi clan.

Badri said that the Iraqi forces would free the entire province of Anbar from IS.

“The forces will not stop its military operations until all areas are liberated from [IS],” he stated.

Moreover, Jaafar Mousawi, a Hashd al-Shaabi commander, stated that they have information that some IS insurgents in Khalidiya are originally from southeastern and southwestern Asia.

“Now, all of them [IS] are surrounded on the island,” said Mousawi. He also mentioned that they expect to control Khalidiya within three days.

On June 2014, IS took control of Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq. The group continued to expand in the country by taking control of Nineveh, Diyala, Salahaddin and Anbar provinces.

However, the terrorist group has lost over 50 percent of territory in Iraq, according to the US Presidential Special Envoy Brett McGurk.

Recently, Iraqi security forces advanced in the south of Mosul by liberating Qayyarah military air base and the village of Osaja.

Preparations continue to launch an offensive on Mosul to clear the city from jihadists which Iraqi officials believe would be the end of IS in the country.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany