ISIL militants attack Iraq air base hosting US troops

The ISIL Takfiri militants have launched an attack on an air base used by US troops in the restive Iraqi province of al-Anbar.

At least seven members of the Takfiri group, who were using a military vehicle, attacked al-Asad air base on Friday, an Iraqi army colonel and an Iraqi Defense Ministry official said.

As many as 300 US security forces are reportedly training local security forces at the air base.

All of the militants were killed in a counterattack by Iraqi forces.

"The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) supported by Coalition surveillance assets defeated the attack (on the Al-Asad air base in western Iraq), killing all eight attackers," a US military statement said.

The attack on the base came a day after the militants launched an onslaught on the nearby town of al-Baghdadi.

Gunmen belonging to the ISIL terrorist group “launched an attack yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, targeting the police headquarters of Al-Baghdadi and two government buildings in the town center," an Iraqi lieutenant colonel said.

Another Iraqi colonel said that Iraqi forces along with tribal forces succeeded to repel the militants from most neighborhoods of al-Baghdadi on Friday, adding that the terrorist are still in control of some buildings and positions in the center of the town.

The ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

The terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against all Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.

IA/KA

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