Iraqi air force stages 325 sorties on Qaeda

Iraqi air force aircraft have carried out up to 325 sorties targeting bases of "the terrorist organization al-Qaeda" in al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, the Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday. The warplanes have staged up to 235 "effective flights against 30 targets of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)," the official statement said, indicating that the strikes had been carried out, based on intelligence information. The ministry displayed video films showing an air attack on a vehicle equipped with a medium-caliber automatic machine-gun and another strike on gunmen perching atop a house. Iraqi air and land forces have been engaged in a wide-scale mop-up operation in the provincial cities, Al-Fallouja and Al-Ramadi, and other towns in the province, targeting al-Qaeda gunmen. Government troops have recently started the large-sale operation after the radical gunmen took control of some parts of the two cities and a number of locations in the vast governorate. Source: KUNA