BAGHDAD- Anbar was rocked by clashes last week after government troops evicted months-old sit-in in the city of Ramadi staged by Sunni tribesmen.
Fifty-five militants of the Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as Daesh, have been killed in the western Anbar province, the Iraqi Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry said that 30 militants were killed in an airstrike on the Anbar city of Fallujah.
The other 25 militants were killed in joint operations between security forces and tribesmen in Anbar, the statement said, giving no further details.
Anbar was rocked by clashes last week after government troops evicted months-old sit-in in the city of Ramadi staged by Sunni tribesmen opposed to the Shiite-dominated government of Premier Nouri al-Maliki.
The sit-in dispersal came two days after Sunni lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani, a prominent anti-Maliki protest organizer, was arrested in a raid on his Ramadi home by Iraqi forces.
Six people were killed in the raid, including al-Alwani’s brother.
Local tribesmen later expressed their support for local police against Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen who claimed that they had established control over the province’s two main cities – Ramadi and Fallujah.
By Sawsan al-Qaiysi
