Authorities warn of growing ISIS activities in western Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Local officials in Iraq’s Nineveh and Anbar provinces have warned of increasing activities by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, following two recent suicide attacks in western Iraq.

“Anbar is vast terrain and makes up a third of Iraq’s landmass. Recently, ISIS militants’ activities have increased in the province,” Imad Mashaal al-Dulaimi, mayor of Anbar’s al-Rutbah district, told Rudaw on Saturday.

Mashaal added that ISIS militants have largely taken shelter in remote areas of Anbar province, prompting security forces to intensify operations to track them down. Al-Rutbah is the largest district in Anbar.

On Saturday, two ISIS militants detonated themselves during a security operation in western Anbar, injuring federal security personnel, according to Iraq’s National Security Service (INSS).

Earlier, on Thursday, Iraqi security forces uncovered one of ISIS’s largest weapons and ammunition caches during a major operation in the same area, Dulaimi said. According to a statement from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, the seized arsenal included 23mm and 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns, three RPGs, a 60mm mortar, five PKM machine guns, three sniper rifles, 33 mortar shells, 11 sticky bombs, nine explosive devices, and several other items.

ISIS seized control of large swathes of Iraq in 2014 but was militarily defeated in 2017 after three years of intense fighting.

Mohammed Jasim Kakaiy, head of the security and defense committee in the Nineveh Provincial Council, said areas between Anbar and Nineveh consist largely of open desert, making it easier for ISIS remnants to move between the two provinces.

In Nineveh, Kakaiy warned, ISIS militants are primarily active in the Hazar area. He said that during an operation on Friday, Iraqi armed forces killed five to six ISIS members — including Abi Hajar Ani, one of the group’s leaders - after their hideout was targeted by airstrikes.

Hazar district is located about 60 kilometers southwest of Nineveh province.

The renewed ISIS activities come amid growing concern in Iraq that the group is exploiting security gaps in Syria following prison breaks involving ISIS detainees.

“Recent events in Syria and Rojava have impacted the increase of ISIS activities in Iraq,” Kakaiy said.

In mid-January, Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji warned that ISIS was taking advantage of clashes between Kurdish forces and Damascus-affiliated armed groups in Syria, during which detainees escaped from several prisons.

Syrian government forces and allied groups subsequently took control of key detention facilities previously run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including al-Shaddadi prison and the al-Hol camp in Hasaka province, as well as al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa. These sites house tens of thousands of ISIS members and their family members.

Following the security lapses, the US military said up to 7,000 ISIS militants could be transferred from Syria to Iraq.

In response, Iraq has reinforced its western border, placing six Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) brigades, three border guard brigades, and four Iraqi army brigades on alert along the approximately 600-kilometer frontier with Syria.