Air strikes decimate ISIL forces fleeing Fallujah

The US-led coalition said it destroyed 175 ISIL vehicles while Iraqi government aircraft claimed at least 260 vehicles destroyed and 150 extremists killed.

Iraqi forces inspect charred ISIL vehicles that were destroyed in government and US-led coalition strikes south-west of Fallujah on June 29, 2016. Moadh Al Dulaimi / AFP

BAGHDAD // Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft have decimated ISIL forces fleeing the Fallujah area, destroying more than 200 vehicles and killing dozens of militants, officials said on Thursday.

Iraqi forces declared victory in Fallujah on Sunday after more than two years of ISIL control in the city.

The strikes – which began late on Tuesday and lasted through the following day – compounded what was already a major defeat for the extremists.

The Pentagon estimated that coalition strikes destroyed some 175 ISIL vehicles, while Iraqi officers said a total of at least 260 were destroyed and 150 militants killed.

“Over the last two days, the Iraqi security forces and the coalition conducted strikes against two large concentrations of [ISIL] vehicles and fighters,” Pentagon spokesman Matthew Allen said.

The coalition destroyed an estimated 55 vehicles from a convoy that had gathered in areas south-west of Fallujah and a further 120 in an area north-west of the city, he said.

And “we know the Iraqi security forces destroyed more”.

Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said “our heroes in the military aviation destroyed more than 200 vehicles”. He was referring to a first series of strikes on a massive convoy of several hundred vehicles heading south of Fallujah, apparently bound for areas that ISIL still controls, near the border with Syria to the west.

The ministry of defence released aerial footage showing dozens of vehicles being taken out, including pickup trucks, minibuses and cars.

Mr Rasool said commandos had also seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition, while at least 150 ISIL militants were killed in the strikes. However, it was not clear how the dead were counted and identified.

At least another 60 ISIL vehicles were destroyed later by air strikes conducted by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft on a convoy heading north-west of Fallujah, said Anbar operations command chief Ismail Mahalawi.

He could not provide an estimate for the number of ISIL fighters killed in those strikes.

“This is a desperate attempt on the part of the terrorists to flee to their areas in Al Qaim near the Syrian border and Tharthar,” Mr Mahalawi said.

Tharthar is a lake north of the Euphrates, which is surrounded by desert. ISIL fighters still hold lines through the surrounding desert that reach Mosul, the country’s second city and their last remaining Iraqi stronghold.

Iraqi forces retook full control of Fallujah, just 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, after a vast operation that was launched in May.

* Agence France-Presse