Iraqi forces register more gains against Daesh in Anbar

Iraqi forces on Thursday recaptured more territory in the western Anbar province from the Daesh terrorist group, according to Iraqi military sources.

Major-General Numaan Abd al-Zawbaei, commander of the army's 7th Division, told Anadolu Agency that regular troops backed by Hashd al-Shaabi fighters had "liberated" Anbar's Al-Saada area and the nearby villages of Jereejib and Qunaitera west of the city of Al-Qaim (located some 350 kilometers west of provincial capital Ramadi).

"Several terrorists were killed and a number of booby-trapped vehicles destroyed during the operation," he said, adding that most remaining Daesh militants had since fled the area towards Al-Qaim.

Al-Zawbaei went on to point out that Iraqi ground forces were receiving air support from U.S.-led coalition warplanes, which, he said, had succeeded in destroying "many" Daesh sites in western Anbar.

Meanwhile, Army Captain Mohamed Khattab al-Azzawi told Anadolu Agency that Iraqi police and army forces on Thursday had dismantled a booby-trapped vehicle on the outskirts of Mosul's Al-Hadbaa district.

Last month, the Iraqi army began a wide-ranging campaign aimed at liberating the cities of Rawa and Al-Qaim, the terrorist group's final redoubts in Anbar.

After overrunning vast territories in northern and western Iraq in 2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of major defeats.

In August, the group was driven from Tal Afar in Iraq's northern Nineveh province. One month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh's self-proclaimed "caliphate" -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.