The siege of Saqlawiyah was a siege of the town of

Saqlawiyah As Saqlāwīyah ( ar, الصقلاوية, aṣ-Ṣaqlāwīyah) is a city in Al Anbar Governorate, in central Iraq. It is located roughly 5 miles (8 km) northwest of the city of Fallujah. Saqlawiyah is a rural city in between Habbaniyah and Falluja ...

(north of

Fallujah Fallujah ( ar, ٱلْفَلُّوجَة, al-Fallūjah, Iraqi pronunciation: ) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jew ...

, 50 km west of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

) by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(ISIS or ISIL) during the

War in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. Other armed conflicts involving Iraq * Wars during Mandatory Iraq ** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921 * Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...

of 2013 to 2017.

Events

Siege

The siege began when ISIL besieged Camp Sicher and cut the Sicher main road, which opened the way for them to siege

. The besieged soldiers were without any support or food. On 21 September, ISIL militants entered Camp Saqlawiyah, which contained 1,000 soldiers, after they controlled the regions around the city, by disguising themselves in army uniforms. The besieged soldiers immediately thought that this was the military support that was sent by the government. Lt. Col. Ihab Hashim said "Two explosives packed vehicles blew up, while three

Jihadists Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

had explosives packed vests". 200 soldiers out of almost 1,000 others succeeded in escaping the camp. Five surviving soldiers stated to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' that 300–500 soldiers of the 1,000 others are either dead, kidnapped or in hiding. The other 400 soldiers were besieged in Camp Saqlawiyah until 300 of them were killed. A representative in the

Iraqi Parliament The Council of Representatives ( ar, مجلس النواب, Majlis an-Nuwwāb al-ʿIrāqiyy; ku, ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌ران, ''Enjumen-e Nûnerên''), usually referred to simply as the Parliament is the unicameral legislature o ...

, Abdul-Hussein al-Mousawi, stated "ISIS has besieged 210 soldiers in different places of

and Sicher."

Military efforts

On 20–22 September, the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

, being led by the Anbar operations commander, Rashid Flayih, claimed to have succeeded in breaking the siege on the 400 soldiers in Camp Saqlawiyah, only to end up losing 300 of them after an assault that allegedly involved

chlorine gas Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is ...

and IS militants disguised as Iraqi soldiers. Once inside the base, the disguised IS soldiers detonated several Humvees in a suicide attack. Iraqi soldiers attempted to hold off the IS convoy at the entrance as the survivors gathered into groups and retreated from the base, leaving it to be overrun by the Islamic State. The new

Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...

Haider al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication fro ...

, ordered to prison the commanders of the regiments that were positioned in

and Sicher and interrogate them. The spokesman of al-Abadi stated "The General Commander of the Iraqi Armed Forces ordered on 18 September to send support and reinforcement to the besieged soldiers in Saqlawiyah, he also ordered to intensify the overflights on the bases of ISIS." While other military sources assured that the security leaders refused to obey the orders, which led al-Abadi to send the anti-terrorism forces to arrest them and interrogate them. A lot of sources said that

wanted to let go of all the pro-

Maliki The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...

officers who obstructed the orders of al-Abadi.

References

{{coord, 33.3964, N, 43.6833, E, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:IQ, display=title

Military operations of the Iraqi Civil War in 2014 Military operations of the War in Iraq (2013–2017) involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Saqlawiyah, Siege of

Events

Siege

Military efforts

See also

References