Five bombings target areas in Anbar

Unknown people bombed five houses possessed by the families loyal to extremist ISIS group in different places in Heet district on the western side of Anbar. Meanwhile, Iraqi National Alliance held a meeting on late Sunday. The meeting was attended by Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi and a number of political leaders.

According to sources, Unknown attackers threw sound bombs at houses owned by families of Islamic State fighters in western Anbar, according to local sources. Alsumaria News quoted the sources saying that the unidentified attackers hurled the grenades late Sunday at houses in the city of Hiit belonging to locals whose sons had joined the extremist militant group.

No casualties or material damages resulted from the attack, according to the source. Local fury against families of IS members had prompted officials at the city to call for evacuating those families to prevent potential actions of violence.

Islamic State militants took over large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”. Since then, the group executed hundreds of Iraqis for violating its strict religious codes, collaborating with security and attempting to flee areas under its control.

The Iraqi government says more than four million people were displaced since IS emergence. IS is currently struggling with a few remaining members to defend Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq where a security campaign has been running since October 2016 to retake the city.

IS has held a few towns in western Anbar since 2014, and the Iraqi government is predicted to move to liberating those areas after retaking Mosul. On the other hand, The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), headed by senior cleric Ammar al-Hakim, says the hoisting of Kurdish flags over government buildings in Kirkuk is threatening national unity. 

INA issued a statement on Monday after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi presided over a meeting to examine the fallout from a provincial council decision to raise Kurdish flags in the oil-rich city. The INA statement said the decision, irrespective of other ethnic minorities in Kirkuk, was a wrong move and contradicted the requirement to maintain Iraq's national unity. INA also called for peaceful coexistence among all ethnic groups in the Kirkuk province. 

Iraqi parliamentarian Mohamed Nagi said that the Alliance praised the victories achieved by the Iraqi troops to liberate Mousl from the grip of ISIS extremist group, stressing the need for providing the Iraqi troops with political support during the coming period. He added that the alliance also expressed its refusal to the presence of any American military bases on the Iraqi territories.