“Operation Al-Assad Al-Mutahaib (Ready Lion) continued for 14 days in which 27 ISIS terrorists were killed,” Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as Iraqi commander-in-chief announced on Twitter on Wednesday. He added that knowing the exact number of the dead was not possible, as some bodies might be buried under rubble.
Operation Ready Lion was launched on March 9 in Makhmour to target ISIS militants that are still active in that area, under the supervision of Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS) in coordination with Iraqi army, air force, the international coalition and the Peshmerga.
The spokesperson stated that the international coalition during the operation conducted 312 airstrikes that destroyed 120 caves and sites.
Although the Iraqi government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, extorting money from vulnerable rural populations, and carrying out bomb attacks.
Remnants of the group in Iraq are most active in territory disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, notably in the northern provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, and Kirkuk.
Makhmour is part of a swathe of northern Iraqi territory whose control is disputed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government. Kurdish and Iraqi forces both continue to carry out separate operations backed by the US-led Coalition to root out ISIS remnants.
ICTS arrested eight suspected ISIS members in a series of operations on Tuesday, including two in the Kurdistan Region’s Halabja, and two in Makhmour, according to Rasool.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi, the head of the ICTS, told Iraqi state media on Wednesday that "a strategy and plan has been developed to change methods against terrorist groups to prevent their movement and carry out their operations," including the use of more than 100 snipers.
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