Daesh concluded its deadliest hit-and-run attack of 2017 on Monday, charging along the Iraqi border with a large fighting force, inflicting heavy human and material losses upon the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) if one is to believe Amaq Agency.
Targeting the government-held Al-Jamounah military base in the desert of western Anbar, jihadist belligerents loyal to the Islamic State pushed towards the frontier from three axes after which fierce firefights erupted with the PMU.
Spearheaded by a suicide bomber nicknamed Abu Hasan Al-Iraqi, Daesh militants overran six army outposts surrounding the base and seized loads of weaponry in the process, photos released by Amaq Agency indicate.
In a bulletin covering the attack, the ISIS-tied outlet claimed a total of 68 PMU soldiers were killed once the attack was completely over while 7 armored vehicles were destroyed. In addition, ISIS reportedly captured three armored vehicles which were brought back to the Islamic State mainland before the army encampment was torched:
Al-Masdar News is unable to independently verify the alleged death toll which may very well have been exaggerated for propaganda purposes.
As the aforementioned ISIS attack unfolded yesterday, a PMU branch accused the US military of killing many Iraqi troops in a supposedly accidental HIMARS artillery bombardment that occurred simultaneously in the same area.
