The town of Baaj is situated southwest of Shingal and borders with the province of Ramadi. Baaj was the last place in the area liberated from ISIS on June 4, 2017. However, only the town center was fully liberated. ISIS militants continue to move around the lake between Baaj and Ramadi.
Even Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi, who declared himself caliph of the Islamic State in June 2014, is suspected to have hidden there for a time.
“They have been moving around over the past few days. They killed 20 people last week. Their sleeper cells started to move around in Baaj after this activity,” Khidir Khudeda Rasho, councilor of the sub-district of Grhuzer near Baaj, told Rudaw.
According to Khudeda, after the operation in Baaj, nearly 300 ISIS-affiliated families turned to Ramadi. Baghdadi is suspected to have travelled with them.
Yezidis make up the majority of the population in the sub-district of Grhuzer. ISIS rigged almost 60 percent of the houses with explosives. The original population of the sub-district was 100,000 people. None of the IDP families have returned.
“In the beginning, people feared mines and other explosives. Now, they are afraid of Arabs in the area and the return of ISIS. No Yazidi will return to these places until the Peshmerga return to them,” Khudeda said.
Ashti Kochar, head of security in the west Tigris area, spoke to Rudaw Radio about the danger of ISIS returning to Shingal.
“If the situation goes on like this, ISIS and Arabs of this area will return in a near future. We have information that the security situation in Shingal and Baaj is very bad. Hashd al-Shaabi forces in the region are fearful too. ISIS militants arrest and shoot people in public," he said.
“We don’t know where Baghdadi is exactly. He might be in Ramadi harbor, which is vast and has many places where one can hide,” he added.
