Iraq liberates "Hit" center from terrorist occupation

Iraq’s elite forces have managed to push back terrorists of the ISIL (Daesh) Takfiri terror group from key areas of a city west of the country.

State television said on Friday that Iraq's counter-terrorism forces had reached the center of the town of Hit, and raised the Iraqi flag on top of a government building.

“We are still pursuing them. They have abandoned their families and fled,” a local commander said on state TV, adding that “within days” Iraqis will be celebrating the complete liberation of Anbar province, where Hit, a city with a pre-war population of 100,000, is located.

Fighting has been going on for over a week in Hit with government forces trying to dislodge militants from residential areas across the city. The progress was mainly hampered by the presence of thousands of civilians trapped inside the town.

State television said Iraqi forces have successfully evacuated more than 10,000 civilians from the town in recent days.

Other sources said Daesh terrorists had planted explosives on roads as well as in cars and buildings, further complicating the advance of government forces in the streets of Hit.

SS