ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq carried out two airstrikes on Thursday targeting an Islamic State (ISIS) leader in the Iraqi eastern province of Diyala, leaving two dead as the country commemorates the victims of the Speicher massacre.
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) said that following months of field monitoring and intelligence tracking by the Military Intelligence Directorate, “the heroic Air Falcons carried out two successful airstrikes using F-16 aircraft.”
Adding that subsequently the Iraqi security units “began searching the targeted site and found the bodies of two terrorists,” detailing that “one belonged to the criminal Muhannad Karim Ali (alias Abdul Aziz Abu Maysarah),” who held the position of the so-called “Emir of the South Bahriz Sector."
The operation coincides with the annual commemoration of the victims of the Speicher massacre. On June 12, 2014, over 1,700 cadets and soldiers undergoing training at the camp in Tikrit were executed by ISIS militants, who had initially promised them safe passage.
Camp Speicher, which is currently named Majid al-Timimi air base, is located in the town of Tikrit, approximately 170 kilometers north of Baghdad.
Several of the country's provinces on Wednesday announced that Thursday is a public holiday, with Iraq’s state media reporting that Baghdad province “suspends official working hours tomorrow, Thursday, in its headquarters and affiliated departments in remembrance of the souls of the Speicher massacre martyrs.”
Inspector General of the Military, Jassim Mohammed Alwan, in a moment of silence and mourning for the victims of the massacre on Thursday, stated that “the victories achieved by our security forces, across all branches and formations, against the terrorist ‘ISIS’ gangs were a tribute to the blood of the Speicher martyrs that watered the soil of the homeland.”
ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. ISIS remnants are particularly active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
