“Iraqi forces along with other Iraqi military units killed four ISIS militants, destroying their tunnel on the third day of Operation Will of Victory's third phase,” Iraqi Security Media Cell spokesman Yehia Rasool tweeted on Wednesday.
Launched on Monday, the third phase of Will of Victory aims to clear areas in the provinces of Diyala and Nineveh from Islamic State (ISIS) remnants.
The operation is collaboration between domestic forces, including Baghdad Operations Command, federal police, the army, intelligence services, Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF), and counter terrorism and air forces, as well as international assistance from the US-led international coalition, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Defense.
The PMF claimed to have reached all of their objectives for the third phase of Will of Victory, in a statement released on Tuesday.
“PMF was able to clear 147 villages in Diyala and Mosul, and destroyed 17 ISIS workshops used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs),” the statement said on Tuesday.
“PMF also destroyed two ISIS tunnels and four oil tankers that belonged to ISIS and were being prepared for illegal export,” it added.
The group also claimed that areas north of the Diyala river are no longer under ISIS threat after the completion of its part of the operation.
A Tuesday statement from Iraq’s Ministry of Defense claimed the clearance of parts of Nineveh from ISIS remnants, as well as suspect arrests.
“Iraqi forces cleared the Sheikh Ibrahim and Badush mountain ranges and their surrounding villages in Nineveh from ISIS militants,” according to the statement.
“Iraqi army units in Nineveh arrested 17 suspects believed to be ISIS militants,” it added.
The third phase of Will of Victory operation is preventing ISIS militants from controlling routes that connect Nineveh to Kirkuk, Baghdad, and Saladin,” Saad Maan, spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“Iraq is committed to combatting terrorism in Iraq, and Will of Victory is the best example [of this] that we can see,” he added.
Though parts of Diyala are disputed by the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi federal government, Maan also confirmed the coordination of operations with Kurdish forces, with the common aim of smothering any potential resurgence of ISIS in Diyala.
Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi armed forces launched simultaneous operations against Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Kolajo, Diyala province on Monday morning, days after militants killed four Kurdish security personnel in the area.
ISIS seized vast areas of northern Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. Though declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, its remnants and sleeper cells remain active, returning to their earlier insurgency tactics.
According to the US Secretary of Defense’s Lead Inspector General report to US Congress published on Friday, ISIS are “working to rebuild their capabilities” in Iraq and Syria.
“ISIS is rebuilding in remote territory, which is hard for Iraqi forces to secure,” the report said, and is “able to recruit in these areas [Iraq’s northern and western provinces] using family and tribal connections,” it warned.
