ISIS leader killed in Iraqi airstrike north of Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi National Security Services on Monday confirmed the killing of an Islamic State (ISIS) leader north of Baghdad following a DNA test.

The National Security Services confirmed the death of the so-called deputy governor, or Wali, of northern Baghdad in an airstrike in al-Tarmia district, north of the Iraqi capital.

The statement added that he was identified as Adwan Farhan Jafal, following DNA testing.

ISIS controlled swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively. However, the group still poses a threat to both countries through bombings, hit-and-run attacks, kidnappings, and other tactics.

The announcement comes a day after Iraqi counter-terrorism forces announced that they had launched a major campaign to inspect prisons on the orders of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The measures to secure Iraqi prisons from potential security gaps followed a major prison siege by the terror group in Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava).

ISIS detainees led an audacious attack on the al-Sina'a prison in Hasaka's Ghweran neighborhood on January 21. The facility housed around 5,000 ISIS members at the time of the incursion, and the major escape attempt raised significant concern about the terror group's capabilities, despite their complete lack of territorial control.

An additional 5,000 other militants are held by the SDF in other jails.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday said that the death toll was 121 of its fighters, prison guards and civilians, as well as 374 ISIS members since the clashes started.

According to a report published this month by Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, there is little evidence of a significant ISIS resurgence in Iraq, with the militants increasingly isolated from the population.

“The Islamic State’s insurgency in Iraq underwent a steep decline over the last 20 months,” the global security think-tank states. “A comprehensive analysis of attack metrics shows an insurgency that has deteriorated in both the quality of its operations and overall volume of attack activity, which has fallen to its lowest point since 2003.”