Iraq to free Anbar next

Iraq's premier said that the country's "next battle" is to retake Anbar province from the Islamic State jihadist group, his most direct statement yet on Baghdad's target after Tikrit.

"Our next stand and battle will be here in the land of Anbar to completely liberate it," Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday said from a base in the province west of Baghdad, according to his office.

He was visiting Anbar to "check on preparations" for the upcoming military campaign.

Abadi announced last week that Iraqi forces retook the city of Tikrit from ISIS, in Baghdad's biggest victory to date over militants who overran large parts of the country last June.

It was unclear if the next target would be Nineveh, ISIS's main stronghold in Iraq and the first province to fall last year, or Anbar, a massive desert province stretching from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad.

While ISIS has gained further ground in Anbar since June, the government's loss of territory in the province predates the jihadist offensive by six months.

Though Tikrit was a significant success for the government, it also highlighted problems facing Iraqi forces on other fronts, including Anbar.

Tensions between Iranian-backed militias -- which are the largest and most effective -- and the US-led coalition are an issue. Washington made clear that it did not want Iranian-backed groups involved in Tikrit.

It also took a month for Iraqi forces to retake Tikrit -- a relatively small city that ISIS seeded with bombs and defended with snipers and suicide bombers.

Recapturing the vastly larger area of Anbar, where militants have had even longer to prepare their defences, will be a major challenge.

Meanwhile, Sweden foreign minister Margot Wallstroem yesterday said Thursday it will send up to 120 troops to northern Iraq to train Iraqi and Kurdish fighters as part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

She added that the Swedish troops will provide "military advice and training... not combat units" and that they will focus on Kurdish peshmerga forces.

And Canada on Wednesday carried out its first air strikes in Syria the military said, expanding Ottawa's contribution to the US-led coalition against Islamic State, after parliament approved a larger role in the conflict.

Two F-18s using precision-guided munitions struck a ISIS position near the Syrian city of Raqqa, before safely returning to base, the military announced.