Middle East

US planes attack Islamic State forces near Iraq’s Haditha dam

Pentagon says US military hit IS forces in Anbar at the request of Government of Iraq

Tribal fighters carrying their weapons pose for photographs during an intensive security deployment to fight against militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the town of Haditha last month. Photograph: Reuters
Tribal fighters carrying their weapons pose for photographs during an intensive security deployment to fight against militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the town of Haditha last month. Photograph: Reuters
Sun Sept 07 2014 - 14:43

The United States said it launched four air strikes against Islamic State militants threatening the Haditha Dam in western Iraq this morning, broadening its campaign against the fighters.

It was Washington’s first offensive into Iraq’s western Anbar province since it started air strikes on Islamic State forces in the north of the country in August.

"At the request of the Government of Iraq, the US military today conducted coordinated air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists in the vicinity of the Haditha Dam in Anbar province," said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.

A handout picture made available by the US Department of Defense last month shows an US fighter jet refueling from an US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq. Photograph: EPA
A handout picture made available by the US Department of Defense last month shows an US fighter jet refueling from an US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker over northern Iraq. Photograph: EPA

“We conducted these strikes to prevent terrorists from further threatening the security of the dam, which remains under control of Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Sunni tribes.”

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Islamic State has overrun large areas of northern Iraq and declared a cross border Islamic caliphate, including territory it controls on neighbouring Syria.

Yesterday Syrian warplanes bombed a bakery run by Islamic State in the city of Raqqa, killing 25 people, in air raids that also hit a major training camp used by the insurgent group for a second day running, a group monitoring the war said.

The air strikes on Raqqa, Islamic State’s stronghold some 400kms northeast of Damascus, also hit a building used as an Islamic court, and another of the group’s offices, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdulrahman, founder of the Observatory, said the bakery was run by the militant group.

The Observatory, which gathers information from all sides in the civil war, said the dead included 12 civilians and nine Islamic State activists.

Islamic State, which has seized wide expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria, drove the last Syrian government forces out of Raqqa province in late August when its fighters seized an air base, capturing and later executing scores of Syrian soldiers.

In a headline bar, Syrian state TV said army units had destroyed weapons and ammunition stores used by Islamic State fighters in Raqqa, “eliminating a number of them and wounding others in a number of areas”. It gave no further details.

Agencies