Security forces launch offensive to free town in western Iraq

The Iraqi security forces on Saturday launched a major offensive in Iraq's western province of Anbar to free a town seized by the Islamic State (IS) militants, a provincial security source said.

Iraqi soldiers, police and allied Sunni tribesmen, backed by U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi aircraft, advanced in the morning from three directions to free the town of al-Baghdadi, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The offensive was also designed to break the siege of a neighborhood adjacent to al-Baghdadi, where some 1,000 families of security members and government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group members have been trapped, the source said.

So far the troops managed to break the siege and let the humanitarian aids reach to the families who were suffering from acute shortage in food and drinking water for about ten days, the source said.

The troops also surrounded the town while heavy clashes spread around and in some neighborhoods of the al-Baghdadi town, he said.

"The streets clashes which broke out today will continue until the troops clear the town from the last extremist militant," the source added.

Earlier in the day, a security source told Xinhua that the IS militants burned up to 43 people alive in the nearby town of Heet, after being abducted from the militants-seized town of al-Baghdadi. The kidnapped people were believed to be local police and Sahwa fighters.

The executions came after the killing of some 70 others during the past ten days when the IS militants carried out major attacks on al-Baghdadi and the nearby air base of Ain al-Asad which is housing hundreds of U.S. Marines.

However, their attacks on the air base were repelled by security forces and U.S. aircraft, while fighting continued in and around the town.

Ain al-Asad military base is used by Iraqi military forces, as well as roughly 300 U.S. Marines as military trainers and advisers.

The IS group has seized around 80 percent of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias pushed them back from western areas of the capital.

Since December of last year, there have been insurgent attacks in the Sunni Arab heartland west of Baghdad which stretches through the Anbar province.

Anbar province was the scene of fierce clashes which flared up once Iraqi police disbanded an anti-government protest outside Ramadi city.

The security situation in Iraq started drastically deteriorating since June 10 last year, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS, an al-Qaida offshoot.

IS took control of the country's northern province of Nineveh, later seizing swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit