Iraqi ISF and PMF operations along HWY 12

According to IraqiNews:

Iraqi security forces and allied tribal militias recaptured on Friday 11 villages in western Anbar from Islamic State militants as operations in that region launched Thursday.

Nazem al-Juhgeifi, a senior intelligence commander at al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said army forces, backed by police and tribal troops, recaptured seven villages on the road between the towns of Annah and Rawa. He said IS militants fled those villages without resistance.

Ragea al-Eifan, a member of the security committee at Anbar Province council, said troops retook four other villages after militants fled to the town of Rawa.

[…]

“The mission is to clear Rawa as a first phase while cutting supplies to the group from the town of Qaem passing at the desert area surrounding those areas,” he stated.

COMMENT: Iranian news sources also stated that in addition to the Popular Mobilization Forces, the 7th Iraqi Army Division is also involved in this action. Throughout late 2014 and early 2015, some 320 US advisers trained 7th Iraqi Army Division, which has subsequently engaged in combat actions against ISIL.

PMF has effected control of a section of Iraqi Road 47 west of Mosul. This new action has them pursuing control of a stretch of Iraqi Highway 12, towards the border with Syria.

For Iran-supported Iraqi PMF, effecting a level of control at the Iraqi-Syrian border can also be seen as rendering the potential forf extending a ground line of communication (GLOC), linking the Syrian and Iraqi theaters of war against ISIL, Al-Qaeda and their armed allies.