The US military announced on Friday, September 13, that it had carried out a strike in coordination with Iraqi security forces that resulted in the death at the end of August of four leaders of the Islamic State (IS) group in western Iraq, including the head of operations in that country. “This operation targeted IS leaders and served to disrupt and diminish IS’s ability to organize and conduct operations.”the US military’s Middle East Command (Centcom) said, adding that 14 IS members were killed in total in the strike carried out on August 29.
Two days after the raid, the U.S. military announced that seven American soldiers had been wounded in a large-scale operation with Iraqi security forces against ISIS in the west of the country. Iraqi intelligence said at the time that the operation came after “more than two months of surveillance using human and technological means”having made it possible to locate “four reception houses” used by ISIS. They also said it was likely that “high-ranking leaders” are among those killed in the raid.
2,500 US soldiers in Iraq
According to Centcom, the four leaders of the organization in Iraq killed are Ahmad Hamid Hussein Abd-al-Jalil al-Ithawi, head of operations in Iraq; Abu Hammam, head of operations in the west of the country; Abu-Ali al-Tunisi, head of technical development; and Shakir Abud Ahmad al-Issawi, head of military operations in western Iraq.
Iraq has declared its «victoire» against ISIS in late 2017, but jihadist cells remain active in the country and continue to sporadically attack army and police personnel, particularly in rural and remote areas outside major cities. The United States deploys approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq and nearly 900 in Syria, as part of the international coalition created in 2014 to fight the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). The alliance includes personnel from several other countries, including France and Great Britain.
“Centcom remains committed to ensuring the defeat of the Islamic State, which continues to threaten the United States, our allies and partners, and regional stability.”Centcom chief Gen. Erik Kurilla said in the statement.
