IS announces Haditha, Iraq, as next target

BAGHDAD, July 22 (UPI) -- An Islamic State message has identified the city of Haditha, Iraq, as the target of the militant group's next major offensive.

Haditha, with a population of about 100,000 mostly Sunni Muslims in Anbar province, 240 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Baghdad, it is the site of Iraq's second-largest hydroelectric facility, with the six-mile-long Haditha Dam on the Euphrates River. It is also a city which, in the past 18 months, has shown remarkable resistance to Islamic State (IS) onslaughts because of local tribesmen and the Iraqi army.

A recent IS offensive against Haditha involved 37 suicide car bombs.

The city is essentially cut off from Iraq, surrounded by captured IS communities. Electricity is sporadic, gasoline and food are prohibitively expensive and essential services have disappeared. Haditha relies on aerial convoys of the Iraqi military to deliver supplies, and the U.S.-led coalition, with the Iraqi government, are determined to insure it does not fall to IS.

The tribal fighters and Iraqi security forces launched their own offensive Tuesday to remove IS forces gathered in Albu Hayat, on the western side of the city.

"We are attacking Daesh from three directions and we will not retreat until retaking Albu Hayat to secure not only Haditha but the supply route to the army base," said Sunni tribal leader Khalid Mijbil al-Nimrawi, using another term for IS.