Baghdad launched on Sunday a security operation backed by US-led coalition warplanes, the second such move in less than a week following the release of a video showing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Iraqi security forces launched a military operation to search areas north of Anbar province, west of Salahuddin province and south of Nineveh province, in coordination with the army’s air force command as well as coalition warplanes,” the Military Information Cell said in a statement.
The operation is aimed at “bolstering security there and pursuing terrorist elements and wanted persons,” the statement added.
Baghdad has recently intensified its military operations after the spread of ISIS cells in the country’s western regions from where they have carried out attacks that have left dozens killed and injured.
“The operations initiated by the Iraqi forces in the deserts of Nineveh and Anbar provinces include air strikes and airdropping of forces,” the spokesperson of the Joint Operations Command, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, stated.
Rasool confirmed the participation of US-led coalition warplanes in the operations.
He pointed out that the forces are observing from warplanes Wadi Hauran and Wadi Qazaf in Anbar Governorate, and the border given that the desert valley has been previously used by terrorists to carry out attacks.
An Iraqi official, for his part, ruled out that the main objective is to arrest or assassinate Baghdadi.
The official, who refused to be identified, told Asharq Al-Awsat that such military operations are not new and are not necessarily linked to the release of Baghdadi’s video.
The video has confirmed information acquired by the Iraqi authorities and the international coalition that the ISIS leader is located in the border area between Syria and Iraq.
“Baghdadi wanted through the video to make a morale-boosting appearance and reassert his presence,” the official explained.
This means that his elements have begun to “receive painful blows by our fighters,” the official said.
