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| The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense [PHOTO: David B. Gleason/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0] |
Washington: The Pentagon has confirmed Islamic State militants have taken control of a town not far from an air base where U.S. and coalition forces are training Iraqi forces.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the fall of al-Baghdadi and said it was the first time in months that IS militants had captured new ground.
The capture of al-Baghdadi came on the same day IS militants launched a suicide attack on the nearby al-Asad air base.
The Pentagon said several IS fighters were killed in the attack on the base in Anbar Province on February 13.
No Iraqi or U.S. troops were killed or wounded, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said the attack was led by "at least several" suicide bombers, some of whom managed to detonate their bombs before they were killed by Iraqi troops.
It was not clear whether the attackers at al-Asad managed to penetrate the perimeter of the base, which is a sprawling series of compounds.
"Information is still coming in," a Pentagon spokesman said.
There are about 400 U.S. troops at the base.
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