Raid by US, Iraqi forces kills 15 ISIS operatives in west Iraq

BAGHDAD – A joint operation by American and Iraqi forces killed 15 members of terror group ISIS in Iraq’s western desert, with seven US troops injured during the operation, the US Central Command (Centcom) said.

The raid targeted ISIS leaders and was carried out in the early morning of Aug 29, resulting “in the death of 15 ISIS operatives” with “no indication of civilian casualties”, Centcom said.

It said the ISIS members were “armed with numerous weapons, grenades and explosive ‘suicide’ belts” and that Iraqi forces were continuing “to further exploit the locations raided”.

Five US soldiers were wounded during the raid and another two were injured in falls, a defence official said.

One of the wounded was evacuated for treatment, as was one of the personnel injured in a fall. All seven were in stable condition, the official said.

The Centcom statement was posted early on Aug 30, hours after the Iraqi authorities put out their own statement on the raid.

The Iraqi intelligence services said “more than two months of human and technological surveillance” had allowed the identification of “four safe houses” used by the militants.

They said the dead “likely included senior leaders”, adding that forensic tests were under way.

The suspected ISIS safe houses were all hit repeatedly from the air before helicopters landed commandos at the sites, the intelligence services said.

The Iraqi military regularly announces operations against ISIS hideouts in remote desert or mountain areas.

The operations are currently still carried out with the support of military advisers from a US-led coalition deployed to Iraq and neighbouring Syria a decade ago when the power of ISIS was at its peak.

Baghdad and Washington have been engaged in months of talks over the future of anti-militant coalition forces in Iraq.

Despite Iraq’s stated goal of a full withdrawal of the forces, no timeline has been made public.

The US has some 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria as part of the coalition against ISIS.

Coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria, as violence related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that broke out in early October has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East.

ISIS is now a pale reflection of the group whose fighters swept through Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a “caliphate” in which they brutally imposed their extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

After losing its last redoubts in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, the group has been reduced to small bands of guerillas that no longer control any territory.

Iraqi security forces insist they are now capable of tackling ISIS remnants unassisted, as the group poses no significant threat.

A UN report released in July found that the group’s combined strength in Iraq and Syria had fallen to between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters as a result of “battlefield losses, desertions and recruitment challenges”.

In Iraq, ISIS “activities remain largely contained but the group remains capable of sporadic, impactful attacks”, the UN report found.

“(Its) modus operandi consists of kidnapping for ransom, infrastructure disruption and the selective targeting of security forces while avoiding direct confrontations,” the report added.

The UN said that the desert areas of Al-Anbar province, where Aug 29’s joint operation took place, were among the group’s last havens.

“Western Al-Anbar, particularly Al-Rutbah and the desert in Al-Rawah, remains a significant haven and operational zone, benefiting from smuggling across the Iraqi-Syrian border,” it said. AFP