US-Iraqi cooperation to prevent re-emergence of ISIS
Fears have grown of the return of
ISIS to Iraq in conjunction with the American withdrawal, as the current role
of Washington in Iraq lies in enabling the security forces to ensure that the
terrorist organization does not return again, in addition to providing advice
and intelligence information, at a time when the border strip between Iraq and
Syria still represents a danger.
US-Iraqi
cooperation
US Ambassador to Iraq Matthew
Tueller confirmed that his country's forces have accomplished many wonderful
things since 2014 thanks to the US-Iraqi cooperation.
During an interview with the
US-based Alhurra channel, the ambassador added that the countries neighboring
Iraq want to see the activities of the armed militias under the control of the
Iraqi government, saying, “The Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga were
partners in defeating ISIS, but there must be stronger coordination, and we
hope that our engagement in Iraq will help develop the Iraqi forces and the
Peshmerga forces.”
Tueller noted that ISIS poses a
threat to Iraq and Syria, as it carried out many attacks on military facilities
in Diyala and in other areas that are not under control between the Iraqi
federal and Kurdish lines.
On the other hand, the Iraqi joint
operations revealed that the security forces had succeeded in preventing the
infiltration of ISIS elements from Syria into Iraq. Major General Tahsin
al-Khafaji, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, said that the Iraqi-Syrian
border file is an important file supervised by the Joint Operations Command,
along with the security operation that the Border Forces Command carried out in
controlling the Iraqi-Syrian border through proactive and qualitative
operations.
Khafaji pointed out that the Iraqi
army had recently succeeded in stopping a large part of the infiltration
operations after it managed to arrest many ISIS elements on the Syrian-Iraqi
border.
Regarding the control of the
Syrian-Iraqi borders, Khafaji confirmed in statements that the Joint Operations
Command activated the intelligence effort in following up on terrorist
organizations, from which ISIS elements are trying to cross into Iraq.
In late August, the Iraqi
authorities announced the launch of a security operation on the border strip
with Syria, with the participation of the army and border guard forces, which
included the border strip within the Triangle of Death, which are the areas in
which ISIS remnants are active, located between the governorates of Salah
al-Din, Kirkuk and Diyala.
Unusual ISIS
movements
During the first week of September,
unusual movements by ISIS appeared with three specific attacks carried out in
three Iraqi cities, one of which almost ended with the control of a village
north of Diyala. These attacks resulted in the killing and wounding of about 20
soldiers, including officers and tribal mobilization members. Army planes
participated in repelling the attacks.
Despite the implementation of
military campaigns and the combing of some security-fragile areas, the attacks
escalated in the areas north of the capital during the past two weeks. In some
attacks, the militants used ambushes to inflict the largest number of victims,
while the withdrawal was carefully planned.
Abdul-Khaleq al-Azzawi, a member of
the Iraqi Parliament’s Security Committee, confirmed that there have been nine
villages empty of their residents since 2014, as ISIS exploits the migration of
people from those areas to hide and launch attacks on other villages and towns.
These attacks come as the government
and the military leadership announced the start of security preparations to
protect the elections scheduled to take place in less than a month.
