ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US-led coalition in Iraq has, for the first time, confirmed its participation alongside Iraqi Security Forces in its “Will of Victory” operation to defeat the remnants of Islamic State [ISIS], as well as offensives conducted by Kurdish forces in Northern Syria.
“CJTFOIR [Coalition Joint Task Force for Operation Intent Resolve] conducted a series of strikes against Daesh [Arabic acronym for ISIS] facilitators this week in Nineveh in support of the Iraqi Security Forces,” read a Monday tweet from Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the moniker for the US-led coalition against ISIS.
In justification of their involvement, the tweet added that “since the loss of their terrain, Daesh has transitioned to resurgent cells intent on destabilizing the region.”
The US-led coalition to defeat ISIS was established after ISIS swept across northern Iraq in 2014, taking over the majority of Nineveh province — home to the country's second largest city of Mosul — and threatening both the federal and regional capitals of Baghdad and Erbil.
The coalition has conducted 34,514 strikes between August 2014 and the end of May 2019, according to a CJTFOIR monthly civilian casualty report released on June 28, 2019.
The Iraqi Security Forces, alongside the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and with Iraqi and US-led coalition airstrikes, began Operation Will of Victory to eliminate ISIS remnants in the provinces of Mosul, Anbar and Saladin on July, 7 2019.
With Will of Victory still ongoing, Iraqi Security Media Cell spokesman Yahia Rasool tweeted a video of himself on Monday detailing the operation’s reportedly unprecedented successes.
“The Iraqi forces and PMF have reached some desert areas in-between Anbar, Mosul and Saladin for the first time since 2014 with the help of the coalition and Iraqi airstrikes,” Rasool said.
“The Iraqi army, with the PMF and with Iraqi and US-led coalition airstrikes, has destroyed many ISIS bases and neutralized several ISIS militants in the deserts between Mosul, Anbar and Saladin,” he added.
ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017, but continues to pose a serious security threat to the country. Militants have formed sleeper cells and resorted to underground tactics, taking advantage of security vacuums that have formed due to Iraqi and Kurdish territorial disputes in these provinces.
There are daily reports of ISIS sleeper cells carrying out hit-and-run attacks on security personnel and infrastructure, and kidnapping and killing local officials and civilians – primarily in Anbar, Nineveh and Saladin.
An estimated 14,000 to 30,000 ISIS militants remain dispersed across Iraq and Syria, according to the US Defense Department.
Regarding operations in Syria, the CJTF-OIR public affairs office told Rudaw English on Monday that they “will continue to work with allies and partners to clear liberated areas, train partners and provide technical assistance, conduct targeted CT operations, and support stabilization efforts."
"The CJTF-OIR mission in Syria remains the enduring defeat of Daesh working by, with and through our partner forces. With the territorial defeat of ISIS, the D-ISIS campaign in northeast Syria has transitioned from liberating territory to enabling local security and preventing resurgent Daesh networks,” they added.
