Iraqi forces 'attack last IS bastion on Syria border'

Iraqi forces launched a new operation to recapture the final Islamic State group stronghold along the Syrian border, the BBC reported.

Government forces, Anbar provincial police and Sunni Arab tribal fighters marched toward the town of Ana on Tuesday morning, a military source said.

"The objective is to bring the entire province of Anbar back into the fold of the nation," Lt Gen Rashid Flaih, head of Anbar's paramilitary units, said earlier on Monday.

Ana is one of three Iraqi towns in the Euphrates river valley held by IS, and is just 90km (55 miles) away from the Syrian border.

Islamic State group remains in control of large parts of the valley across the border in Syria, where Syrian government forces and a Kurdish-Arab alliance continue to engage in battle with the militants.

Last week, Iraq announced it had recaptured the first town in the valley, a pivotal logistics point from the militant group, just hours after launching the offensive along the Syrian border.

An Iraqi military statement confirmed soldiers dislodged Akashat, a desert region located south of the Euphrates river, paving the way for the recapture of urban centres in the Euphrates valley, including the border post of al-Qaim, it said.

The area around Akashat in Iraq's Anbar province is a pivotal logistics point, with highways linking to Syria and Jordan. 

The surrounding territories are rich in gas and also where the border post al-Qaim is based.

Iraqi forces captured the whole of the IS-held city of Mosul in July, which was seized by jihadis in their 2014 campaign in Syria and Iraq.

IS captured much of northern and western Iraq during the offensive, when the militant leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself "caliph" in a Mosul mosque.

Since then, the group has lost much of its territories in Iraq and Syria.