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Wednesday 06 Jan 2016 - 13:38 Makkah mean time-26-3-1437
(Image from AP)
Ramadi, (IINA) - A spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting terrorism groups in Iraq confirmed on Tuesday that ISIS has lost 40 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq, BBC reported.
Colonel Steve Warren told reporters that ISIS was "on the defensive", and had "not gained one inch in Iraq since May". He also said that the group were also driven out of 20 percent of its territory in Syria.
Despite the losses, ISIS has continued to launch counter-offensive, including several operations near the western Iraqi city of Haditha in the past 48 hours.
Warren said that the coalition’s air strikes had helped Iraqi government forces repel an assault on Monday that witnessed about 200 militants, noting that more than 100 had been killed.
He did not give a figure for casualties on the government side, but a tribal commander told AFP that they had lost more than 25 fighters.
Haditha’s Mayor Mabrouk Hamid said that the ISIS counter-offensive had involved more than 40 armored vehicles, some of them filled with explosives.
Warren said that ISIS had shifted its focus to Haditha, situated near a key dam in the north of Anbar province, after losing control of the provincial capital Ramadi to the government last week.
The coalition spokesman also denied claims by ISIS that it had captured the towns of Barwana and Sakran near Haditha. He stressed that the group had not gained any territory in Iraq since May.
AG/IINA
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