Bombing kills Iraqi soldiers near disputed town, as anti-terror operations continue
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi army on Monday announced that an improvised explosive device (IED) had killed two of its soldiers, as they were conducting anti-terror operations near the disputed town of Makhmour, some 100 kilometers southeast of Mosul.
Iraq’s Security Media Cell, the country’s official military communications center, said in a statement that the IED blew up under an Iraqi army vehicle “while searching the Mount Kraw area within the Makhmour sector.” In addition to the two soldiers who were killed, two others were wounded in the incident.
Located in the southwest of Erbil province, Makhmour lies within the areas that are contested between the federal government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG.) The district includes rugged, barren terrain that has long been a haven for terrorist groups, including the so-called Islamic State, which uses such areas as a base for planning and launching attacks against surrounding settlements and towns.
Read Article: Peshmerga official warns terrorist activity growing as ISIS claims attack in Kirkuk
The Islamic State appears to have taken advantage of several recent crises hitting Iraq, including the coronavirus pandemic. It also exploits the long-standing security gap between Peshmerga Forces and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in the disputed areas to carry out attacks against security forces and civilians.
In two incidents reported in Salahuddin province on Sunday, terrorists killed two members of the Iraqi federal police and the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded six others, according to local media reports and a PMF statement.
In April and May, as the number of terrorist attacks grew—which included setting fire to crops, just as the harvest arrived—the US-led international Coalition carried out military operations in partnership with the ISF and the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga against the terrorist group.
Related Article: We continue to work with the Peshmerga, Coalition Spokesman says
Recently, the ISF announced the arrest of a high-profile Islamic State member—Abdul Nasser Qardash. Qardash is from Tal Afar, a mixed Sunni-Shia Turkmen-majority town in northern Iraq. Once considered a successor to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Qardash is, himself, Turkmen.
The ISF also announced the recent death of another senior Islamic State figure: Mutaz al-Jabouri, another Iraqi, who was “governor” of Iraq for the terrorist group.
The military operations by local, partner forces were supported by Coalition warplanes, which carried out a series of raids on the group’s hideouts.
Hideouts Struck, Plots ‘Foiled’
On Sunday, the Iraqi interior ministry announced the arrest of members of an Islamic State sleeper cell that was allegedly plotting attacks in different parts of the country, including the Kurdistan Region.
The intelligence forces disrupted a “terrorist sleeper cell” in Basra province and arrested two of its members responsible for facilitating “contact and movement” of the Islamic State, as the official Iraqi News Agency reported, citing a senior ministry official, Abu Ali al-Basri.
The detainees carried out attacks against citizens, Iraqi forces, and the Kurdish Peshmerga at the height of the terrorist organization’s control in the country, Basri stated, as he explained that the two men had confessed their affiliation with the group.
Also on Sunday, a Coalition airstrike killed seven Islamic State fighters in the Wadi al-Shai—which Iraqi officials sometimes call the Valley of Death—southeast of the disputed Kirkuk province, Iraqi security sources told Kurdistan 24.
The operation was based on “accurate” Iraqi intelligence, the source noted. Shai Valley is a patch of territory characterized by rough terrain. Despite repeated operations conducted by Iraqi forces to hunt and capture Islamic State fighters, the area remains a hotspot for the terrorist organization.
As Islamic State operations have continued since its territorial collapse in late 2017, officials from the Kurdistan Region, along with civilians in the disputed territories, have repeatedly called for creating a long-term joint security plan between Erbil and Baghdad to fill the deadly security gaps.
Read More: Top Kurdistan Region officials meet anti-ISIS Coalition commander
The US commander of the Coalition’s Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (SOJTF-OIR), Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, was in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday to discuss a range of issues with senior KRG officials. Chief among the matters on their agenda was the ongoing military efforts against the Islamic State.
In a meeting with Hill, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani expressed his concerns “about the latest ISIS activities in Kurdistani areas outside the Kurdistan Region, particularly attacks on and abductions of Kurdish farmers,” a KRG statement explained.
For his part, Hill noted the importance of the KRG’s partnership with the US and the Coalition more broadly. He agreed that “the war on terror has not finished yet,” while he underscored “the need to further strengthen coordination between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq in combating terrorism.”
Editing by Laurie Mylroie