Five ISIS militants killed in Iraqi force ambush: military

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Five Islamic State (ISIS) militants, including two senior members, were killed by Iraqi forces in Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad, Iraqi Security Media Cell said on Saturday.

The operation to kill the militants was carried out by Baghdad Operations Command units, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al Shaabi in Arabic), and the Sunni tribal militia force Hashd al-Ashairi, with assistance from Iraq’s air force, which conducted four airstrikes in the area, the Cell said.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi, commander of the armed forces, directed the operations during his visit to Tarmiyah district early Saturday, according to a statement from his office.

The ISF raided a house in Tarmiyah where ISIS members were holding a meeting to plan out attacks on Baghdad, state media reported Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for Kadhimi in his capacity as commander in chief as saying.

An ISF member, three members of the PMF, and two members of Hashd al-Ashairi were killed in the clashes with ISIS militants, both the Cell and the PMF’s media directorate said.

The senior ISIS members killed were the so-called Tarmiyah governor, or Wali, and the Sharia Mufti of ISIS in the North Baghdad area, according to the Cell and the PMF.

Iraq has stepped up its anti-ISIS operations after a double suicide bombing in Baghdad’s Tayaran Square last month killed 32 people and injured 100 others.

Kadhimi announced the killing of Abu Yaser al-Issawi, who referred to himself as the deputy caliph and ISIS' so-called governor, or Wali, of Iraq, as part of operation "Revenge of the Martyrs" in late January.

Issawi's killing fulfilled a promise to the "families of the dead in Tayaran Square, and the PMF [Popular Mobilization Forces]," spokesperson Rasool told state media.

Less than a week later, Rasool announced that two Islamic State (ISIS) group members involved in the attack had been killed.

Though ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017 and in Syria in March 2019, militants from the extremist group continue to wreak havoc in both countries.

ISIS members have been able to cross the Syria-Iraq border, with nearly 100 of its militants crossing from Syria into the northwestern Iraqi province of Nineveh last week, Mirza Khalaf, Peshmerga commander of the 2nd regiment in Shingal told Rudaw on Thursday.

In Syria, 21 ISIS militants were killed in airstrikes launched by Russian warplanes against their positions in the Syrian desert, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday.

The raids came in response to attacks by ISIS on Friday that killed eight Syrian regime-affiliated militants, according to SOHR.