Iraqi Military F-16 Fighter Jets Strikes 8 Daesh Commanders

OSINT SUMMARY

24^th December 2015, latest military reports indicate that Iraqi warplanes have killed eight Daesh commanders in the renewed military push against the Takfiri targets.

In a statement read out on the state television, “F-16 planes killed dozens of terrorists, including eight senior commanders of Daesh”.

The F-16 bombardments took place on militant’s hideouts in Hawija and Anbar. Specifically military raids targeted northern Iraq province of Kirkuk and the sprawling province to the west of the capital, Bagdad area largely controlled by Daesh terrorists.

The new development came after Iraqi forces advanced into the center of Ramadi, Anbar’s capital, overnight on Tuesday with the aim of liberating the entire city, which has been under the control of Daesh terrorists since May.

According to Sabah al-Noman, a spokesman for the Iraqi counter-terrorism service, speaking on same day said that “the city will be cleared in the coming 72 hours.”

Shia volunteers and Kurdish fighters joined the Iraqi forces in their countrywide battle against the terrorists.

Iraqi’s Summaria news channel later on reported that the troops and volunteers had managed to liberate some neighborhoods from Daesh control in Ramadi through successive shelling of its positions in the central district of al-Zobbat.

Summaria news channels reported that Zabat was currently under the full control of the Iraqi forces and a mop-up operation had been launched to hunt down the militants holed up in residential buildings.

IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly published the results of a study on Tuesday, and revealed Daesh terrorists had in a year lost nearly 15 percent of the land that they had under control in Iraq and Syria as the group suffers more setbacks in the two countries.