ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi army launched a new military operation on Monday, pursuing Islamic State group (ISIS) militants in the north and west, the military’s Security Media Cell announced.
The "Lions of the Peninsula" operation focuses in the Jazeera region in Anbar, western Nineveh, and Salahaddin provinces, with the support of the air force, said spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, General Yehia Rasool.
Iraqi security forces have conducted several operations against ISIS already in June. On Saturday, a large-scale security operation was launched to track down ISIS cells south of Mosul. A similar operation took place earlier in the month between Kifri and Tuz Khurmatu in Diyala, with the cooperation the Peshmerga and French forces of the global coalition.
The coalition said in a tweet on Monday that Iraqi security forces killed three terrorists and seized dozens of IEDs and weapons between June 5 and 11.
ISIS swept across Iraq and Syria, seizing control of swathes of territory in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017 and in Syria in March 2019, but remains a threat on both sides of the border where militants carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.
