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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)
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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.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.