Updated: Unidentified shelling kill, injure thirteen civilians inside house, west of Anbar

Rocket shelling. File photo.

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Thirteen civilians were killed and injured as unidentified shelling occurred, north of Rutba city, west of Anbar, a local source from the province said.

“Unidentified jet shelled a house of civilians near Okashat region, in the north of Rutba,” the source told AlSumaria News.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said “the shelling left Four people, including two children, were killed, while nine others, including children, were injured.”

Despite being controlled by security troops, occasional attacks as well as unidentified shelling usually occur on some parts and regions in the vicinity of Rutba.

On Saturday, a senior Iraqi officer was quoted as saying that a military operation was launched to drive IS militants out of the weste regions in Anbar province.

Iraqi forces and US-led inteational coalition were slammed due to the fall of hundreds of civilian casualties by air strikes and explosions.

Iraqi troops were able to retu life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s weste cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some weste villages before stopping again.

It is believed that the Iraqi govement will not aim at weste Anbar before its forces are done with retaking Mosul.

latest Iraq news by Iraqi News ...