HABBANIYAH: An ambush by the militant Islamic State group killed 10 soldiers in western Iraq, where federal and other forces recently ramped up an anti-jihadist offensive.

A local commander said the attackers were disguised as soldiers and took advantage of a sandstorm to ambush a convoy near the town of Rutba, a remote outpost on the road to Jordan.

“Daesh (IS) members armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers attacked civilian and military vehicles carrying soldiers near Rutba,” an army spokesman said.

“They killed at least 10 and wounded 20,” he said. Other officials confirmed the attack and the casualty toll.

Rutba lies 390 kilometres west of Baghdad in the vast province of Anbar and is the last sizable town before the border with Jordan.

Anbar is a sprawling desert province traversed by the Euphrates and borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

It has long been an insurgent stronghold, and IS already controlled parts of it when it swept through Iraq in 2014 to take over around a third of the country.

Pro-government forces have since retaken most towns and cities in Anbar, but the jihadists still control some areas near the Syrian border and have desert hideouts from which they harass federal forces.

The army officer said the victims of the attack were members of the border guard, Anbar police and the army.

“The Daesh members were wearing military uniforms and driving military vehicles. They set up a rogue checkpoint on the main road near Rutba,” a border guard commander said.

He said five of the 10 killed in the ambush were border guards.

According to the mayor of Rutba, the ambush was carried out in an area just east of Rutba on the main road from the provincial capital Ramadi.

He added that three more members of the security forces were missing and feared kidnapped.

Government forces have over the past six months focused their efforts on retaking Mosul, the large northern city which was the de facto Iraqi capital of IS’s self-proclaimed “caliphate”.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2017