At least 15 Iraqi border guards, including two officers, were killed Friday morning in an attack by Daesh in Iraq’s western Anbar province, according to a military source.
Daesh gunmen and suicide bombers targeted a border guards headquarters near Anbar’s Trebil border crossing with Jordan, Army Colonel Walid al-Deleimi told Anadolu Agency.
Al-Deleimi said that reinforcements, including army troops and border guards, had since been dispatched to the area to help repel the attack.
War-torn Iraq has suffered from a devastating security vacuum since June 2014, when Daesh overran vast swathes of territory, including the northern city of Mosul.
Last October, the Iraqi army – backed by a U.S.-led air coalition and local allies on the ground – launched a wide-ranging offensive aimed at recapturing Mosul, once considered Iraq’s second most populous city.