31 December 2018•Update: 31 December 2018
By Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD
Iraqi warplanes on Monday struck a site in Syria’s Deir -Zour province that had been hosting a meeting of Daesh terrorists, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.
The airstrikes were carried out in Deir - city of Al-Bukamal, according to a ministry statement.
A two-story building, which was completely destroyed, had been used as a meeting place for Daesh fighters, according to the ministry, which added that 30 Daesh members had been in the building at the time of the airstrike.
The operation was carried out on the orders of Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the ministry said.
The strikes come two days after a meeting between Faleh al-Fayad, Abdul-Mahdi’s national security advisor, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, where the two men reportedly discussed regional developments against the backdrop of a planned U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria.
Earlier Monday, al-Fayad said via Facebook that the Assad regime had agreed to an Iraqi request to strike Daesh targets in Syria without obtaining prior approval from the regime.
Monday’s strikes come one week after Abdul-Mahdi ordered the deployment of fresh military reinforcements to the Iraq-Syria border.
Following last week’s surprise announcement that the U.S. planned to withdraw its troops from Syria, the U.S. last Friday evacuated a military facility located in Syria near the Iraqi border.
