Alwaght- Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched operations to eliminate remnants of the ISIS terrorist group from a strategic area in the Arab country’s Nineveh province.
The PMF forces commenced Operation al-Qaim Martyrs early Thursday to clear ISIS terrorists in al-Hadar district south of the provincial capital of Mosul, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
“PMF brigades 15, 25, 33, 44, backed by intelligence and detonation units, launched this morning ‘Operation al-Qaim Martyrs’ to clear the district south of Mosul of the remnants of terrorist groups,” said a statement by the PMF Media Bureau.
The operation takes its name from those killed in US airstrikes which sparked angry protests in Baghdad where protesters stormed the American embassy.
On Sunday, the PMF said ISIS terrorists had launched an attack on al-Hadar with the help of US forces.
“At 9 p.m. local time, our units spotted the landing of three parachutes from some US-made Chinook helicopters in the al-Hadar reservoirs south of Mosul, and after half an hour, a number of ISIS terrorists were observed there,” the PMF said.
After receiving information about the terror attack, forces from the brigade 44 deployed to the area and eliminated at least four terrorists, it said, adding “US forces had equipped the terrorists with American equipment and weapons.”
On Thursday, the al-Qaim Martyrs Operation was launched to eliminate ISIS terrorists in the area. According to the PMF Media Bureau, Popular Mobilization Forces have so far secured eight villages.
“The Brigade 33 and its supporting forces within the Nineveh Operations Command of the PMF have thus far completed securing the villages of Khazza, Sahel Hamad, Khudhrat Sharghiyah, Taratiyat, Shujaysh, Ruwayshiyeh, Salih al-Bara, and Saadia Shahid,” it said in the statement.
The developments came four days after US forces conducted airstrikes on a number of Kata’ib Hezbollah bases in Qaim in the western province of Anbar, killing as many as 31 fighters and wounding almost twice as many. The targeted Kata’ib Hezbollah forces belonged to Brigades 45 and 46 of the PMF.
Following the strikes, the Pentagon said the raids targeted weapons storage facilities and command control locations, claiming that the bombings were in response to attacks targeting American forces in Iraq.
The raids, however, drew a wave of condemnation from officials and movements across the region, and triggered furious public protests outside the US embassy in Baghdad.
PMU fighters played a major role in the liberation of ISIS-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, after the terrorists launched an offensive in the country, overrunning vast parts in lightning attacks in mid-2014 and turning Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, to their de facto capital.
In late 2017, Baghdad announced the total defeat of ISIS in the Arab country. However, remnants of the terror outfit have every so often conducted sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces alike.
