On Monday, Islamic State militants took control of Rutba, a town of 20,000 people in Iraq's western Anbar province that controls the road from Baghdad to Jordan and Syria.
They overran the mayor's office, executed at least five people, and fanned across several neighborhoods, Al Jazeera reports. Rutba is a "very strategic town," Al Jazeera's Imran Khan says, and this is "seen as a significant victory. The fact that they lost this town is very significant."
The town's capture took place as more than 400 miles away, Iraqi forces, Kurdish peshmerga troops, and others continued to make their way to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the last ISIS stronghold in the country. Soldiers spent Monday fighting in two villages near Mosul, passing out food and water to residents after the battles were over. On Sunday, the U.S.-led coalition announced it was behind six airstrikes near Mosul, which destroyed 19 ISIS fighting positions, 17 vehicles, artillery, and tunnels.
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