Iraq
Saad Maan, head of Iraq's Security Media Cell, in an interview with Rudaw on February 27, 2025. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s elite intelligence units have captured two “key links” responsible for facilitating the transfer of arms and “terrorist elements” from camps inside Syria into Iraqi territory, a senior Iraqi security official confirmed on Sunday, noting that the operation was carried out in coordination with both Damascus and the US-led international coalition.
Major General Saad Maan, head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the airborne operation conducted by Iraqi forces in Syria “targeted two key operatives after meticulous intelligence monitoring that lasted more than five months,” led by Iraq’s elite Falcons Intelligence Cell - a specialized counterterrorism and intelligence task force.
He added that “the two targets were responsible for facilitating the transfer of terrorist elements and weapons from camps in Syrian territory and attempting to smuggle them into Iraq, serving as a key link.”
Affirming Iraq’s shift toward “carrying out pre-emptive operations to paralyze terrorist movement at its sources,” instead of being on the offensive, Major General Maan added that the capture of the two operatives was carried out “in coordination with the Syrian side and with support from the [US-led] Global Coalition [to defeat the Islamic State, ISIS].”
Emphasizing Iraq’s shift from crisis management to “carrying out pre-emptive operations to paralyze terrorist movement at its sources,” Major General Maan said the capture of the two operatives was conducted “in coordination with the Syrian side and with support from the [US-led] Global Coalition [to defeat the Islamic State, ISIS].”
Iraqi authorities on Thursday revealed that “two important” operatives wanted by the Iraqi judiciary were captured during an airborne operation carried out inside northeast Syria (Rojava).
Iraq’s Security Media Cell reported that the operation was conducted under the direction and supervision of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, with technical support from the US-led coalition.
On the same day, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Rojava’s Kurdish-led Internal Security Forces (Asayish) were also involved in the operation, adding that the raid took place in a village in the Kurdish enclave’s Hasaka province near the Iraqi border.
Iraqi authorities have not disclosed the nationality of the detainees or the charges filed against them, nor did they specify which camps in Syria these operatives transfer “terrorists” from.
However, Baghdad continues to repatriate Iraqi nationals suspected of ties to the Islamic State (ISIS) who are held in camps and detention facilities in Rojava - namely al-Hol and Roj camps - administered by the Asayish and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In early December, the US Department of State reported that approximately 11,600 individuals from more than 70 countries, including Iraq, remain in the two camps, the majority of whom are children under the age of 12.
Roj camp houses families considered less dangerous than those held in al-Hol.
According to figures provided earlier this month to Rudaw by Sheikhmous Ahmed, the supervisor of refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Rojava, Roj camp currently holds 2,294 people, including 75 Iraqis.
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