Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi inaugurated on Tuesday a memorial wall in Baghdad commemorating the sacrifices of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), the security forces’ central unit in the battles against terrorist groups led by ISIS.
Kadhimi said during the inauguration that the monument commemorates the sacrifices of the heroic CTS martyrs.
“A few hours ago, your heroic colleagues in the Counter-Terrorism Service managed to kill an entire terrorist detachment in Kirkuk that tried to attack your units,” he said.
Kadhimi was referring to a security operation described as “major” against ISIS elements in Kirkuk.
Earlier, spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasoul, announced that the CTS managed to kill an entire ISIS unit that tried to attack security forces patrols in Kirkuk.
Rasoul said the operation was carried out according to the directives of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The security forces carried out the operation two days after a deadly ISIS attack on a federal police outpost south of Kirkuk that killed 13 security members and injured six others.
The spokesman added that snipers of the security unit monitored the terrorists and killed a number of them, as international coalition warplanes chased the rest and managed to destroy their hideout.
Meanwhile, an official in the international coalition to help Iraq in its war against ISIS ruled out the group’s resurgence in Iraq, amid local fears it was escalating its operations against security forces and rebuilding its military capabilities.
The official military spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), Colonel Wayne Marotto, stated that ISIS terrorist gangs continue to take advantage of the security vacuum, as they are acting as a low-level insurgency compared to al-Qaeda in 2010, noting that ISIS carries out its attacks when it has the chance.
Marotto told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that Iraqi security forces and the international coalition are proactively intercepting and destroying ISIS hideouts, positions and temporary camps, drying up their financial resources and eliminating their key leaders.
“Iraqi security forces are at the forefront of the fight against ISIS.”
He confirmed that the coalition will continue to support the security forces. If the Iraqi prime minister requests the help of the coalition air force, it will support it, adding that it “has not seen any indication of the resurgence of ISIS.”
He vowed: “As long as these gangs continue to pose a clear and present threat to the security of Iraq and northeastern Syria, the coalition will continue to strike.”
