ISIS terrorist group executes 4 leaders for escaping Anbar

Islamic State militants have executed four senior leaders for fleeing the group’s stronghold in western Anbar, a paramilitary leader said Monday as military offensives targeting the region loom.

Qatari al-Obaidi, a senior mobilization leader in al-Baghdadi region, told Alsumaria News that Islamic State executioners shot dead four senior leaders at the Syrian city of al-Boukamal, on the borders with Anbar, after they had fled Annah.

Islamic State has executed several members since Iraqi forces launched in 2016 a wide-scale operation to retake areas held by the group since 2014. Members were commonly executed for slack battlefield performance, treason and attempting to flee the group’s strongholds.

Islamic State militants have held the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim, on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, since 2014, holding thousands of civilians there. Security reinforcements have reportedly been sent recently near those towns preparing for an attack against the group.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a statement congratulating the nation for the recapture of Akashat region, west of Anbar, in a “snap operation” which he said left hundreds of militants dead.

While the Iraqi government said late August that its next target of anti-IS military action was Kirkuk’s Hawija, some officials were quoted saying that parallel operations in western Anbar could also be carried out.

Source: Iraqi News