Around 500 Iraqi police officers killed by ISIS in Anbar in 2014

Nearly 500 police personnel were killed and around 1,500 others injured in clashes with the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Anbar province of Iraq in 2014, Brigadier Jasim Al-Dulaimi, the region’s associate police chief revealed yesterday.

In an exclusive statement to the Anadolu Agency, Al-Dulaimi said that records show that 471 police officers were killed and a further 1,445 were wounding during their participation in the military operations, confrontations and clashes against ISIS in the province last year.

He added that a large number of the wounded police officers are still receiving treatment in hospitals in Baghdad and their condition is deemed unstable. He added that large sums of money are needed for the purpose of moving them to private hospitals in neighbouring countries and providing them the necessary treatment.

The assistant police chief called on the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Haider Al-Abadi as well as the Interior Minister Mohammed Al-Ghaban to arrange for providing for the needs of the injured police officers and moving them to hospitals outside Iraq for treatment, following the sacrifices they made for their country.

He pointed out that the “Anbar police command has completed all issues relating to the martyrs and wounded policemen, including the payment of compensation to the families of martyrs, and the amounts allocated to other wounded policemen in order to contribute to their treatment.”

Since the beginning of last year, the city of Fallujah, the Karma area, some neighbourhoods of the city of Ramadi and other areas in the Sunni-majority Anbar province, have been subjected to the control of ISIS and gunmen loyal to the group.

Iraqi army forces have engaged in fierce battles against ISIS in most of the province. The frequency of those battles increased after the organisation took control of the western district of the province as well as the eastern regions.

A Western-Arab coalition, led by the US, is launching air strikes on ISIS sites in both Syria and Iraq. Last June ISIS announced the establishment of what is called the “Caliphate State”.