PHOTO: The dam at Lake Tharthar, where the Islamic State reportedly killed 140 Iraqi soldiers last weekend
An EA correspondent in Iraq reports:
The Islamic State appears to have inflicted another heavy defeat on Iraq’s soldiers, this time near Lake Tharthar, 120 km (74 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
The Qurtas news site posted the first reports, quoting a soldier’s claim that 140 troops were killed during clashes last weekend. He claimed worse could have followed, “The Islamic State controlled Taqsim al-Tharthar Dam, and opened two of its gates. If all other gates are opened, the whole of Baghdad would be drowned”.
The soldier added, “We are trapped in the main Tharthar lake with no weapons except KPC machine guns, asking the Government to put an end to our siege.”
Local sources are claiming that 52 of the 140 victims were executed by the Islamic State. The Iraqi soldiers have been trapped in the area for a week.
On Tuesday commanders of the Iraqi Army’s 1st Division, contacted by Qurtas, denied any siege and said, “The soldiers are exaggerating.”
A media committee of Iraq’s militias, the Popular Mobilization Units, blamed Defence Minister Khalid al-Obaidi for the killings and demanded that Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi fire him.
Local journalists say a general of the 1st Division in Anbar Province, Hassan Toufan, was among the casualties. However, military officials said Toufan and three of his senior staff officers were killed on Friday in an Islamic State ambush north of Fallujah.
Qurtas writes that an Iraqi military force finallly moved towards Tharthar on Saturday to break the Islamic State’s siege on the trapped soldiers.
The incident comes amid the Islamic State’s weeks-long asault on Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, which is south of Lake Tharthar. The militants have moved inside the city; however, in the past week, Iraqi forces have secured the center and pushed back Islamic State fighters. An Iraqi official said that a key bridge on the Euphrates River was recaptured on Friday.
