IRAQI GENERAL, THREE OFFICERS KILLED IN ISIS AMBUSH

Fallujah, Iraq, 6 Rajab 1436/25 April 2015 (MINA) – Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group ambushed an Iraqi army convoy on Friday with a bulldozer packed with explosives, killing the commander of the Iraqi 1st Division and three of his staff officers north of Fallujah, said military officials.

The suicide bomber attacked the convoy of Humvees and then militants opened fire, killing Brig. Gen. Hassan Abbas Toufan, a colonel and two lieutenant colonels in the Nadhem al-Taqseem region, said a member of the division and an intelligence officer.

There was no initial count on the number of soldiers killed in the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, Al Arabiya quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The attack represents a setback for the Iraqi army which is embroiled in a fierce battle to reconquer western Anbar province, which has been under the control of the ISIS group for the past year. Fighting has been focused on the provincial capital of Ramadi, where the government had been making slow progress.

Earlier on Friday, the army had recaptured the important al-Houz bridge over the Euphrates in western Ramadi, which had served as a primary supply route for the militants, according to police Col. Mahdi Abbas.

The security situation in Ramadi sharply deteriorated after the ISIS group seized three villages around the city, forcing an estimated 100,000 to flee their homes. Many had just started to return in the past few days as Iraqi soldiers and police have been able to secure the center of Ramadi and push the militants back from some areas of the city. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)