Iraqi officials: Key town taken from Islamic State group

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government claimed that its troops and Shiite Muslim militias captured a key Islamic State stronghold near Baghdad on Saturday in an operation to boost security for Islamic new year gatherings that apparently was overseen by an Iranian general.

The fall of the town of Jurf al-Sakhar – which couldn’t be independently confirmed – would be the first major success for Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, who took power with U.S. support in September and completed assembling his Shiite-dominated government only last week.

“Our security forces and the heroes of the popular mobilization have achieved another victory in Jurf al-Sakhar,” Abadi wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the Shiite militias mobilized after the Iraqi army imploded in mid-June as the Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul and stormed to the threshold of Baghdad.

The capture of Jurf al-Sakhar would bring under government control a hotbed of support for the Islamic State and its predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Sunni-dominated area controls a network of roads on which the Islamic State and al-Qaida in Iraq in the past routinely bombed and attacked Shiite pilgrims making their way from Baghdad to shrines in the sacred city of Karbala to mark the new Islamic year.

The new Islamic year began on Saturday for Sunnis. It starts today for Shiites, beginning a 10-day period in which hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims – including huge numbers of Iranians – descend on shrines in Baghdad and Karbala.

The Obama administration hopes that Abadi’s new government will mend fences with Sunni leaders alienated by what they charged was persecution by the previous Shiite-dominated government and persuade them to turn against the Islamic State.

The fighting for Jurf al-Sakhar has raged intermittently since the Islamic State began its offensive more than four months ago. The town of about 80,000 people lies in a Sunni-dominated region that U.S. troops called the Triangle of Death during the 2003-11 occupation.

Thousands of Shiite militiamen converged on the area to join Iraqi troops and police for a push that began at dawn Friday, said Naim al-Aboudi, a spokesman for Aseab Ahl al-Haq, the most powerful Shiite militia.

The operation also involved fighters from two other Iranian-backed Shiite militias, the Badr Organization and Kata’eb Hezbollah, al-Aboudi said. “We’ve had great success up until now.”

Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias reportedly were accompanied by advisers from Iran’s Quds Force, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a paramilitary and intelligence contingent that reports directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameni.

The operation apparently was overseen by the Quds Force commander, Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who has been shown meeting Iraqi Shiite militia commanders in photographs posted on social networks.

One photograph posted on Twitter reportedly was taken in Babel province, which includes Jurf al-Sakhar, about 40 miles southwest of Baghdad. Suleimani was sitting with the top leaders of Aseab Ahl al-Haq.

Security and Iraqi militia sources confirmed the authenticity of the photos, although not the dates on which they were taken.