The Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces conducted their joint operation to “eliminate the security gap” in the borders of Sargaran sub-district and in the north and east of Mount Qarachogh in Makhmour town, the Peshmerga ministry said in a statement.
The Iraqi Security Media Cell said the operation, which it dubbed the “Solid Will,” was successful and that the forces managed “to reach areas they hadn’t reached before.”
Several villages situated between Sargaran and Mount Qarachogh have recently seen an increase in deadly ISIS attacks with locals fleeing their homes due to the terror group’s threat.
Three civilians died and ten Peshmerga fighters were killed in an ISIS ambush in Sargaran’s Liheban village in early December. Peshmerga forces were later deployed in the village.
The terror group seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and kidnappings across several provinces.
The militants have taken shelter in a security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala. Baghdad and Erbil are in protracted talks to form two joint brigades in these areas.
At least one member of the Iraqi forces was killed and four others were injured in an ISIS attack in Diyala on Sunday night.
The terror group launched over 257 offensives, killing 387 and injuring 518 people, including Iraqi and Kurdish fighters over the past year.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 19 attacks in Iraq from January 27 to February 2, killing and injuring 30 people.
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