Islamic State militants kill 40 Iraqi troops
September 23, 2014 01:17
A wave of suicide bombings by Islamic State militants in western Iraq has killed 40 soldiers amid waning efforts by security forces to retake territory from the Sunni extremist group, a senior Iraqi commander said today.
The attacks, which occurred yesterday in the town of Sijir, 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad, dealt a heavy blow to government efforts to rein in the militants whose rampage has seized much of the country's north and west this summer even as Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters are starting to get training by Iraq's Western allies in the battle against the Islamic State group.
In addition to the 40 troops killed in the suicide bombings, 68 Iraqi soldiers were apparently captured by the Islamic State group in Sijir and have likely been taken to the nearby city of Fallujah, said Gen. Rasheed Fleih. There has been no communication with any of the soldiers since their capture yesterday, Fleih said.
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