One of the largest counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in Iraq in recent years killed four top insurgent leaders last month, the U.S. military said on Friday, dealing the group a major blow at a time when its attacks in Iraq and Syria are on the rise.
The raid by American and Iraqi commandos against several Islamic State hide-outs in western Iraq on Aug. 29 killed at least 14 insurgents and devastated the group’s top leadership in the country, according to a statement from the Pentagon’s Central Command and U.S. counterterrorism officials.
A main target killed was Abu Ali al-Tunisi, a Tunisian national who was the subject of a $5 million reward from the U.S. government, the military revealed on Friday. Mr. al-Tunisi has been ISIS’s most significant designer, manufacturer and teacher in explosives — including improvised devices, suicide vests and car bombs, counterterrorism officials said.
Also killed were the top ISIS commander for all operations in Iraq and two senior commanders for operations in western Iraq, the military’s statement said.
“The raid appears to have effectively killed off ISIS’s entire command in Anbar,” Charles Lister, the director of the Middle East Institute’s Syria and counterterrorism programs, wrote in a Substack newsletter, “Syria Weekly,” on Friday. Anbar is a vast province in western Iraq that has been a locus for violent Sunni extremists for years.
Central Command and the Iraqi military offered scant details when they announced the raid on Aug. 30, even though it was one of the most sweeping counterterrorism missions in the country in years.
Seven U.S. soldiers were injured as more than 200 troops from both countries — including elite Army Rangers backing up the main assault force — hunted down fighters in bunkers over miles of remote terrain, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, adding that the size, scope and focus of the mission underscored the terrorist organization’s resurgence in recent months.
The joint operation in Anbar province came even as Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Iraqi military commanders say they can keep ISIS under control without U.S.-led assistance. Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that would wind down the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq over the next two years. There are about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria.
Central Command, however, announced in July that the number of attacks claimed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria was on track to double this year from last year. ISIS asserted responsibility for 153 attacks in the two countries in the first six months of 2024, the command said, but the military has repeatedly refused to provide a country-by-country breakdown of the figures.
“With ISIS resurgent next door in Syria and U.S. troops now scheduled to depart Iraq by the end of 2026, degrading ISIS’s leadership and capabilities in Iraq is more vital than ever,” Mr. Lister wrote.
The United States and other allied forces have helped Iraqi forces carry out more than 250 counterterrorism missions since October, according to Pentagon officials.
But this operation was unusual in the heavy presence of American commandos leading the initial raid. More than 100 U.S. Special Operations forces and other troops joined a smaller number of Iraqi soldiers in the main helicopter-borne, predawn assault.
Central Command in its statement said the raids “served to disrupt and degrade ISIS’s ability to plan, organize and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S. citizens, allies and partners throughout the region and beyond.”
Besides killing the ISIS insurgents, the American and Iraqi commandos scooped up a trove of cellphones, computers and other sources of information from the raids, military officials said on Friday. U.S. analysts will first quickly assess the information to determine if it holds clues that commandos could use to carry out immediate attacks against other high-priority targets.
Counterterrorism analysts will then spend months poring over the data to learn more about the group’s leaders, finances, operations and planning.
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