Siege of Saqlawiyah
| Siege of Saqlawiyah | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of 2014 Iraq conflict | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Islamic State | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
370 killed,[1][2][3] 68 captured[2] | 14 killed[4] | ||||||
The siege of Saqlawiyah is a siege of the town of Saqlawiyah (north of Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad) by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) during the 2014 Iraq conflict.
Events
Siege
The siege started when ISIS besieged Camp Sicher and cut the Sicher main road, which opened the way for them to siege Saqlawiyah.[5] The besieged soldiers were without any support or food. On 21 September, ISIS militants entered Camp Saqlawiyah, which contained 1000 soldiers, after they controlled the regions around the city, by disguising themselves in army uniforms. The besieged soldiers immediately thought that this was the military support that was sent by the government.[6] Lt. Col. Ihab Hashim said "Two explosives packed vehicles blew up, while three Jihadists had explosives packed vests" [7] 200 soldiers out of almost 1000 others succeeded in escaping the camp.[8] Five surviving soldiers stated to The Washington Post that 300-500 soldiers of the 1000 others are either dead, kidnapped or in hiding.[6] The other 400 soldiers were besieged in Camp Saqlawiyah.
Military attacks
On 20-22 September, the Iraqi Army, being led by the Anbar operations commander, Rashid Flayih, claimed to have succeeded in breaking the siege on the 400 soldiers in Camp Saqlawiyah, only to end up losing 300 of them by Chlorine gas, which was used by ISIS for the first time.[1] Many Iraqi representatives stated that the Saqlawiyah massacre is a new Speicher.
References
- ^ a b "300 Iraqi soldiers were killed by Chlorine gas". Erem News (in Arabic). Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ a b Varghese, Johnlee. "ISIS Militants in Iraqi Army Uniform Massacre Hundreds, Capture 400 Soldiers in Camp Saqlawiyah". International Business Times. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ "Anbar's Operations Command: "The ISIS siege on Saqlawiyah is broken"". Bawabat al-Iraq (in Arabic). Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ "People of Diwaniyah province demand Baghdad to break the siege of Saqlwaiyah and its representatives accuse the ministry of defense and the Anbar operations command of hiding the real numbers". Al Mada Press (in Arabic). Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ "Anbar Operations Commander denies that ISIS militants any phones of the soldiers of Siger". Al Sumaria. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ a b Morris, Loveday. "Islamic State attack on Iraqi base leaves hundreds missing, shows army weaknesses". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ Morris, Loveday. "Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers missing or stranded after attack on army camp". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
- ^ "Stories of the survivors reveal the events of Saqlawiyah". Erem News (in Arabic). Retrieved 23 September 2014.