The extremist Islamic State (IS) militants has reportedly executed an Iraqi engineer kidnapped on Oct.27, in the western province of Anbar, a local official said on Thursday.
Amer Jadaan al-Fahdawi was kidnapped on Oct. 25, when he left a construction site to rehabilitate a destroyed bridge, east of the town of Rutba, some 450 km west of Baghdad, Imad al-Dulaimi, mayor of the town told Xinhua.
The execution was carried out in a desert area east of the town of al-Rutba, al-Dulaimi said.
The rehabilitation of the bridges on the highway, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme in Iraq, is part of the process of reconstructing urban areas destroyed during the battles to dislodge the militants from the province.
Reports say IS militants are still active in the vast Anbar desert that stretches to the borders with neighbouring countries of Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
According to reports, small groups or individuals of IS militants infiltrate repeatedly into Iraq from neighbouring Syria through the roughly 600 km long border with Iraq in an attempt to regroup in the country.
Reports also say that the security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants late in 2017.
The Iraqi forces repeatedly carrying out operations to control the whole border areas with Syria and nearby desert in western Iraq. (Xinhua/NAN)