US warplanes launched four air strikes against Islamic State militants threatening western Iraq’s Haditha Dam early yesterday, witnesses and senior officials said, broadening Washington’s campaign against the fighters.
The leader of a pro-Iraqi government paramilitary force in the west said the strikes wiped out an Islamic State patrol trying to attack the dam – the country’s second biggest hydroelectric facility which also provides millions with water.
“They (the air strikes) were very accurate. There was no collateral damage... If Islamic State had gained control of the dam, many areas of Iraq would have been seriously threatened, even Baghdad,” Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha told Reuters.
The strikes were Washington’s first reported offensive into Iraq’s western Anbar province since it started attacks on Islamic State forces in the north of the country in August. The move brought its planes closer to the border with Syria. US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said they had been carried out at the request of the Iraqi government.
“If that dam would fall into Isil’s (Islamic State’s) hands or if that dam would be destroyed, the damage that would cause would be very significant and it would put a significant, additional and big risk into the mix in Iraq,” he said.
Islamic State has overrun large areas of Iraq and Syria and declared a cross-border Islamic caliphate. Iraqi government forces and a small number of Sunni militias have been confronting Islamic State and other fighters in Anbar since January.
Iraq’s outgoing Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari welcomed the growing US air campaign.
The militants seized control of a dam outside Falluja in April and flooded areas on the rural outskirts of western Baghdad, displacing thousands of people. It abandoned that dam, but went on to take control of Mosul dam, Iraq’s biggest, last month, before being forced out by US air strikes and Kurdish fighters.
Islamic State, which declared a “caliphate” in June in parts of Iraq and Syria under its control, has been cited as a major security threat by Western governments. The Sunni militants have driven more than 1.2 million people from their homes this year.
UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said there was 'strong evidence' Islamic State, and allied groups had carried out targeted killings, forced conversions, sexual abuse and torture in Iraq.
Pansieri voiced concern at the persecution of Christians, Yazidis, Shia, and Turkmen.
Children belonging to targeted minorities have been forcibly recruited and positioned on front lines to shield fighters or made to donate blood. Women are beaten for breaking rules requiring them to be veiled and escorted by men.