by Our Foreign Desk

IRAQ launched a large-scale military offensive yesterday to drive Islamic State (Isis) from the expansive western Anbar province.

Joint Operations Command spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said in a televised statement that the operation had started at dawn and that government forces were backed by Shi’ite and Sunni pro-government militias.

Using the Arabic acronym for Isis, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed to “take revenge on Daesh criminals on the battlefield … and their cowardly crimes against unarmed civilians will only increase our determination to chase them and to expel them from the land of Iraq.”

Early reports from the front line said that villages around the city of Fallujah had been recaptured.

Isis seized large parts of Anbar in early 2014 and captured the provincial capital Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, in May.

An Iraqi counter-offensive to retake the city has so far failed.

However, Iraqi forces recaptured Tikrit, the birthplace of executed former president Saddam Hussein, in April.

During the past few weeks, the troops have been moving to cut Isis supply routes and to surround and isolate Ramadi and nearby Fallujah.

Hours after the military operation began, the Defence Ministry announced the arrival of four US F-16 fighter jets at Balad air base north of Baghdad.

They are among 36 F-16s Baghdad has purchased from Washington.

nIsis claimed responsibility yesterday for a series of bombings in Shi’ite areas of Baghdad on Sunday that killed at least 29 people and wounded 81.