Iraqi security forces kill ISIS leader in northern Syria
Iraqi federal police forces conduct a search for ISIS remnants in the Makhoul and Khanouka mountain ranges. Photo: Iraq’s federal police
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi National Security Service (INSS) announced on Tuesday that it carried out a security operation in northern Syria, where a leader of the ISIS terrorist group was killed.
The INSS mentioned in a statement that the security operation was carried out following intelligence efforts undertaken by INSS security officers to pursue remnants of ISIS terrorists and in coordination with the international coalition to combat ISIS, the state news agency (INA) reported.
INSS officers tracked the terrorist nicknamed ‘Abu Zainab’ during the past few days before they besieged him in the Al-Busayra area in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa.
Abu Zainab was killed in armed clashes with Iraqi security personnel, according to the statement.
The terrorist was responsible for transporting weapons and explosive materials and participated in terrorist operations against security forces in the Iraqi governorate of Salah Al-Din.
UN experts said in a report issued last August that the ISIS group still commands between 5,000 and 7,000 members across its former strongholds in Syria and Iraq, according to the AP.
The report mentioned that during the first half of 2023, the threat posed by ISIS remained mostly high in conflict zones and low in non-conflict areas.
The report that is directed to the UN Security Council illustrated that the overall situation is dynamic, and despite significant losses in the group’s leadership and reduced activity in Syria and Iraq, the risk of its resurgence remains.
Iraq announced in late 2017 the liberation of all its territories from the grip of ISIS, but the authorities are constantly launching security operations to pursue remnants of the terrorist group that carry out attacks from time to time in the country.