A senior commander in the Iraqi army has claimed that they are making "crucial gains" in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Anbar province and have killed hundreds of jihadists in the past few days.
Dismissing the idea that the whole province could fall into the hands of the terror outfit, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al Shammari said that they had killed about 250 IS terrorists, reported Sky News.
Shammari said that the ground operation was being backed by Iraqi air force, military helicopters and coalition airstrikes.
Most of the province is under IS' control, including most recently the capital Ramadi, which was seized by them a week ago.
More than 112,000 people have been forced to flee the region in the last 10 days due to fierce clashes between the two sides.