Dubai: Iraqi warplanes have conducted airstrikes on Daesh targets inside neighboring Syria for the first time, Iraq’s prime minister said Friday, vowing to chase down the militants “everywhere” as Iraqi forces opened new fronts in the city of Mosul.
The strikes in Al Bu Kamal inside Syria - and Hussaiba on the Iraqi side of the border - were carried out by US-supplied F-16 fighter jets in response to bombing attacks in the capital Baghdad, said Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi.
“We are determined to follow the terrorism that is trying to kill our sons and our citizens everywhere,” Al Abadi said.
Iraq decided to carry out the strikes itself, rather than relying on the U.S.-led coalition, because it was acting off Iraqi intelligence and “it’s up to us to take revenge,” said Lt. Gen. Anwar Hana, commander of Iraq’s air force. The strikes were successful, he said.
A source close to the Syrian foreign ministry told leading newspaper Al Watan that the strike was coordinated with the Damascus government.
The source said that “Iraqi bombardment on terrorist targets inside Syrian territory took place in full coordination with the government of the Syrian Arab Republic”.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber attacked Turkish-backed rebels just outside the Syrian town of Al Bab Friday, killing 51 people in a major blow just hours after they hailed its capture from Daesh group.
The bomber blew up a vehicle packed with explosives outside a rebel command centre in the village of Susian, eight kilometres northeast of Al Bab, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
