Iraqi Army Conducts Sophisticated Operation Against ISIS

Iraqi security member in Karbala (AFP)
Iraqi security member in Karbala (AFP)
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Iraqi Army Conducts Sophisticated Operation Against ISIS

Iraqi security member in Karbala (AFP)
Iraqi security member in Karbala (AFP)

The Iraqi Security Media Cell announced that the intelligence unit had carried out a sophisticated operation against ISIS in the Hamrin mountain range in coordination with the Joint Operations Command.

The media cell said in a statement on Thursday that the security operation was carried out by the tactical force of the intelligence agency, in coordination with the Joint Operations Command and the Air Force.

An airstrike targeted one of the most critical ISIS hideouts in the mountain range, used to launch terrorist attacks in Kirkuk.

The operation was carried out based on accurate intelligence information, which led to the targeting of the location. Security units clashed with the terrorists killing one of them, while another detonated his explosives belt after being surrounded by the unit.

Seven terrorists were killed in the operation, while search efforts are still underway to uncover other hideouts within this region, added the statement.

It comes within a series of operations carried out by the security forces against ISIS, after the attack earlier this month that left 12 members of the Federal Police dead and dozens of others wounded.

Under the directives of the Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Mustafa Kadhimi, the Iraqi forces carried out a series of operations, code-named the “Revenge of the Martyrs", against the terrorists’ hideouts in those rugged areas.

The international coalition participated in the operations carried out by the Iraqi army.

Iraq declared a military victory over ISIS in late 2017, after fierce battles that lasted three years. The terrorist organization was able to regroup its remnants and resume military operations in many regions and provinces reaching the outskirts of Baghdad, especially in the Tarmiyah district, north of the capital.

The US-led international coalition plays a significant role in fighting ISIS, whether at the level of intelligence information, aviation, support, or equipment, in light of the contradicting political positions in Iraq concerning the foreign presence in the country, namely the US forces.

Washington began to withdraw its forces based on the strategic agreement signed between Kadhimi and US President Joe Biden at the White House last July.

The international coalition announced that it would increase its forces in Iraq, replacing the US troops, amid Western reports about the ISIS threat and inability to tighten control over the Iraqi-Syrian border.

The reports warn that the porous borders between Iraq and Syria make it difficult to control the ISIS militants from infiltrating it.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.