ISIS WAS PLANNING ITS BIGGEST ATTACK OF 2019

ISIS WAS PLANNING ITS BIGGEST ATTACK OF 2019

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi military intelligence may have foiled a giant terror plot targeting the Kurdistan Region, Baghdad and Basra.

Abu Ali al-Basri, head of the intelligence body known as Falcons Cell, told the state-owned Assabah newspaper that the Islamic State (ISIS) was planning its biggest attack of 2019.

"The aim of those attacks by ISIS was to show everybody that they are still alive and exist," al-Basri told the newspaper.

Iraqi forces reportedly thwarted the attack by destroying several ISIS bases with air support, as well as killing and arresting ISIS militants, according to the al-Basri's statement to Assabah.

Iraq announced victory over ISIS in December 2017, however, the group has continued to carry out small-scale attacks in the country, especially in territories disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. ISIS is also still active in the desert Syria-Iraq border the area following their defeat in Syria in March of this year.

In an attempt to squash the lingering ISIS threat, the Iraqi government announced the "Will of Victory" operation on July 7.  The operation aims to clear the Iraqi desert areas of Anbar, Mosul and Salahaddin of ISIS remnants.

The operation is a collaboration between the  Baghdad Operations Command, the Federal Police, the Army, intelligence services, the Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces (PMFs),  the Air Force and the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition forces.

Al-Basri told Assabah the Falcons Cell arrested 160 ISIS terrorists in Mosul, 40 in Baghdad and another two in Basra in relation to the plot.

The head policeman in the Nineveh province, where Mosul is located, did not confirm the figures in Assabah, but said his forces have arrested hundreds of ISIS fighters recently.

"We are continuously arresting ISIS militants in Nineveh and for the past five months, we have arrested more than 600 ISIS militants in Mosul and its surroundings," Hamad Namis told Rudaw English.

Kurdistan Region security forces, known as the Asayish, declined to comment to Rudaw on the reported operation. In May, a US Defense Department told the US think tank Center for a New American Security that around 10,000 ISIS fighters and supporters remain in Iraq and Syria. Since the loss of their territory, they have resorted to insurgent tactics including bombings, ambushes,  kidnapping, extortion, and arson in Iraq.

Source: RUDAW – 28 July 2019
By: Lawk Ghafuri

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