ERBIL, Kurdistan region - Iraqi forces killed three Islamic State (ISIS) members in a security operation in Nineveh province’s Baaj desert, a provincial security official said on Wednesday.
Muhammad Jasim Kakayi, head of security in the Nineveh Provincial Council, told Rudaw that a large-scale operation has been underway for nearly 10 days in the desert areas of Baaj, carried out by Iraqi Army forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
He added that on Tuesday, "three ISIS militants who were locals of the area were killed in a confrontation.”
Kakayi said the operation was launched following an attack on May 24, when four members of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) were killed after an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated during an operation.
According to Kakayi, the explosive device used in the earlier attack was not an old remnant from ISIS, but a newly planted bomb manufactured by the group.
The PMF said in a statement that a “prominent leader of the remnants of the ISIS terrorist group” and two other members were killed in Nineveh.
The announcement comes days after the Iraqi defense ministry said several alleged ISIS members were killed and their hideouts destroyed during a security operation in Kirkuk.
ISIS emerged in Iraq in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory, including Mosul and parts of Nineveh province, declaring a so-called “caliphate” and carrying out mass atrocities.
Despite its territorial defeat in 2017, the group continues to operate as sleeper cells and small insurgent units in rural and desert areas across Nineveh, Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin provinces.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
