In a push at dawn, Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to retake the town of Hawija - one of the last extremist strongholds in Iraq - from the Daesh group, according to a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office.

The operation began just two days after Iraqi forces began an offensive against Daesh holdouts in Iraq's vast western Anbar province, said Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi.
Hawija, 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, is one of the last pockets of territory held by the extremist group in the country.

Earlier this month, Iraqi and US-led coalition planes stepped up a campaign of airstrikes on Hawija, targeting Daesh bases and weapons facilities.

The Daesh group "now faces the mighty (Iraqi security forces in) the last two areas where they hold any territory in Iraq," US-led coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said in a statement posted on Twitter.

In the western Anbar province, Iraqi forces retook the town of Rihana on Wednesday, according to a statement from the coalition. The territory Daesh holds in the western province lies mainly along the border with Syria in the Euphrates River valley.

Iraqi forces declared victory over the extremists in Mosul in July and in the western town of Tal Afar the following month.

Plans to retake Hawija have been complicated by political wrangling among the Iraqi security forces, Shia armed groups and the Kurdish Peshmerga troops.

The town is part of the Kirkuk governorate, which is disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, where a referendum on independence is scheduled to take place next week. Tensions have risen in the area recently as Kurdish leaders are pressing ahead with the referendum, a move dismissed by the central government as illegal and destabilising to the country. - AP

City is one of the last extremist bases in Iraq

> The operation began just two days after Iraqi forces began an offensive against Daesh holdouts in Anbar province

> Hawija is one of the last pockets of territory held by the extremist group in the country

> Plans to retake Hawija have been complicated by political wrangling among the Iraqi security forces.

> Earlier Iraqi and US-led coalition planes stepped up a campaign of airstrikes on Hawija, targeting Daesh bases and weapons facilities.

> In Anbar, Iraqi retook the town of Rihana on Wednesday

Source: Khaleej Times