Iraq Launches Operation to Pursue ISIS Elements After Recent Attacks

Ruins seen after an ISIS attack on one of the Popular Mobilization Forces checkpoints in Mukaishefah town, south of Tikrit, at dawn on Saturday, May 2, 2020. (AFP)
Ruins seen after an ISIS attack on one of the Popular Mobilization Forces checkpoints in Mukaishefah town, south of Tikrit, at dawn on Saturday, May 2, 2020. (AFP)
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Iraq Launches Operation to Pursue ISIS Elements After Recent Attacks

Ruins seen after an ISIS attack on one of the Popular Mobilization Forces checkpoints in Mukaishefah town, south of Tikrit, at dawn on Saturday, May 2, 2020. (AFP)
Ruins seen after an ISIS attack on one of the Popular Mobilization Forces checkpoints in Mukaishefah town, south of Tikrit, at dawn on Saturday, May 2, 2020. (AFP)

Iraqi security forces began Sunday large-scale military operations to purse ISIS remnants.

This military campaign comes in response to the recent attacks launched by the terrorist organization in a number of Iraqi regions, in which security personnel and elements from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed.

According to the semi-official Al-Iraqiya TV channel, the operations were launched in line with orders by Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and focused on the outskirts of Salah al-Din province and the west of Diyala and Anbar provinces.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Mosul city said some merchants have recently complained about the ISIS elements again imposing royalties on them.

This brings to mind the group's blackmail and the imposition of royalties on the city's merchants and riches before seizing it in June 2014.

The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the current extortion and royalties are practiced on a small scale and mostly in secret.

“Some traders respond to their demands, fearing retaliation by the terrorist elements and due to their lack of confidence in the government's measures against ISIS.”

“The trust of citizens in Mosul and Nineveh’s areas in the security forces and the PMF factions are declining,” the source stressed, noting that some of their elements were involved in similar corruption and blackmailing acts.

ISIS captured most of Nineveh province’s areas after June 2014 before being recaptured by Iraqi security forces in July 2017.

Hisham al-Hashemi, a specialist on extremist movements, said ISIS elements will most likely impose royalties and practice extortions on Nineveh’s citizens.

Hashemi told Asharq Al-Awsat that according to the confessions of detainees from the western Nineveh areas, ISIS had completed organizing its self-financing network in late 2019.

“ISIS collects royalties and investments estimated at about $100,000 a day from multiple trades, including arms, oil, medicines, and cigarettes, and takes royalties from transport vehicles and oil tanks,” the expert added.



Netanyahu Says Israel Is Establishing a New Security Corridor across Gaza

An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Says Israel Is Establishing a New Security Corridor across Gaza

An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)
An internally displaced Palestinian walks at the site of a UN clinic following an Israeli airstrike, in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, 02 April 2025. (EPA)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Wednesday, he described it as the Morag corridor, using the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, suggesting it would run between the two southern cities.

His comments came as Palestinian officials at hospitals inside Gaza said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded since the war against Hamas began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab that further shrinks the narrow coastal territory, home to around 2 million people.