Iraq says 5 Islamic State leaders arrested, 40 others killed in operation in Syria
Representational photo.
A statement on Friday by the Security Media Center said “a major operation was carried out upon commands from the commander in chief of the armed forces, Haidar al-Abadi, and in collaboration with the Iraqi intelligence service and the Joint Operations Command. The operation resulted in arresting two IS leaders who took part in attacks against Anbar and Mosul.
The arrested were Saddam Omar Yehia al-Jamal, known as Abu Ruqaia al-Ansari, and Mohamed Hussein Hadar, known as Abu Saif al-Shouaity, according to the statement. In addition to “Essam abdul Qadir Ashour al-Zawbaie, known as Abu Abdul Haq al-Iraqi, Omar Shihab Hammad al-Karbouli, known as Abu Hafs al-Karbouli, Ismail Elwan Salman al-Eithawi, known as Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, who is one of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s aides.”
The arrests “were carried out in Syria in the border area with Iraq in the wake of an intelligence information.
According to investigations with them, crucial information were used to carry out an airstrike that targeted a meeting for the group’s so-called war authority, “which resulted in killing around 40 leaders, on top of them were Omar Abd Hamad al-Fahdawi, known as Abu Tareq al-Fahdawi, Abu Walid al-Sinawi, Abu Islam al-Kurdi, Ahmed Yehia Zidan,” in addition to others.
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced arresting five ‘most wanted’ Islamic State members, without giving further details.
Iraq had previously announced launching airstrikes against IS locations in Syria. This came after Abadi said security troops will follow IS militants in the whole region, not only in Iraq.
The Iraqi-Syrian borders are under the control of joint troops of military and border guards.