Syria, Iraq joining hands to end ISIS presence

Aya Ezz

For some time now, security forces in Syria and Iraq have been focusing on the moves made by ISIS.

They are also conducting pre-emptive strikes to pursue the organization, in the light of international warnings of the possibility of its return in the two countries.

Intensive precautions

The security services intensified these strikes to pre-emptively thwart any attempt by the organization to return.

In the same context, Michael Kurilla, commander of the US Army Central Command, warned of what he called the real army of ISIS in the prisons of northern and eastern Syria and Iraq.

In a statement published by the US Central Command, he stressed that if the detainees in prisons are freed, they will form an army that represents a real threat to the entire region.

Iraqi operations

About two weeks ago, Iraqi forces began launching very intensive security campaigns, which claimed the lives of almost 30 ISIS leaders.

The operations targeted the organization’s dens in Anbar; Mosul; Salah al-Din, and Nineveh.

The last pre-emptive operations against ISIS, operation Farsan al-Haq, which was launched by the services against the organization in Anbar province in western Iraq, caused heavy human losses to ISIS.

In the same context, Abdul Wahab al-Saadi, the head of the Anti-Terrorism Service, had announced the killing of 22 ISIS elements and leaders as a result of the Farsan al-Haq operation, including the so-called Governor of Fallujah, who was named Barzan Hussein Ali, according to the Iraqi News Agency.

During a press conference last week, al-Saadi explained that after monitoring information about the organization’s elements and its locations by intelligence, the operation was planned, which was carried out in two stages, the first was an air landing operation in an area close to the presence of terrorists in Anbar, and the other was moving the pieces secretly.

The Iraqi official stressed that the task of transferring the sectors lasted for six continuous hours.

The air landing sectors, he said, were trained and at a high level, especially since the area where ISIS elements were hiding was difficult and dangerous.

Most of the terrorists were wearing explosive belts, he said.

ISIS losses

For his part, Iraqi political analyst Salman al-Burai said the pre-emptive strikes carried out by the security forces have borne fruit in the past period, especially as they have caused the organization significant human losses in its ranks and arrested a large number of the organization’s leaders, not to mention the leaders who were killed.

“Despite the pre-emptive strikes and their fruitful results, the organization does not end in Iraq, and the risk of return still exists,” he told The Reference.

He added that the organization also needs political and security instability in Iraq, because chaos and instability in any country makes it a fertile environment for terrorism.