Sunni militants consolidated control of four more strategic towns, including a key border crossing with Syria, in Iraq’s Anbar province Saturday after killing at least 30 Iraqi soldiers.
The forces — part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al Qaeda breakaway group — seized al-Qaim, near the Syrian border, as well as Rawah, Ana and Husaybah.
Control of al-Qaim gives the militants a foothold only a few miles from their bases in eastern Syria. Al-Qaim and the other three towns are all on a strategic supply route, which will allow the Sunnis to funnel even more weapons and combatants over the border.
Soldiers and police in Rawah, 55 miles east of al-Qaim, pulled out when the militants took control, said the town’s mayor, Hussein AIi al-Aujail.
The militants also control Fallujah, which is less than an hour from Baghdad, parts of the provincial capital of Ramadi, and large stretches of northern Iraq, including Mosul, the country’s second-largest city.
The ISIS intends to carve out an Islamic state straddling the two countries.
Meanwhile, more than 20,000 heavily armed Shiite followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, who once led a powerful militia against US troops, marched through the streets of Baghdad, Amarah and Basra in preparation for a showdown with the ISIS.
Al-Sadr is thought to be responsible for mass killings of Sunnis in 2006 and 2007.