Daesh Command Center Reduced to Rubble in Iraq’s Diyala
A high-ranking Iraqi security official says pro-government fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have managed to completely destroy the command center of the DaeshTakfiri terrorist group in the Arab country’s eastern province of Diyala.
“Daesh sustained substantial losses this year, and most of its commanders who were members of the so-called War Council were killed during military operations in Diyala,” Faisal al-Abadi, chief of Diyala’s provincial police, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news agency on Saturday.
He added, “Daesh’s War Council was completely destroyed in the province.”
The development came less than a week after Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said a high-profile Daesh militant commander, who apparently masterminded a September deadly terror attack in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, had been killed in the same Iraqi province
The IRGC public relations office announced in a statement released on October 16 that the senior militant, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Dhoha, was killed along with four assistants in an ambush carried out by members of the Popular Mobilization Units – commonly known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi.
On October 1, the IRGC rained surface-to surface ballistic missiles on the positions of Daesh in eastern Syria, which along with the al-Ahwazia separatist group claimed responsibility for the September 22 terrorist attack in Ahvaz.
The IRGC announced in a statement that the missiles were launched at 2 a.m. local time (2230 GMT September 31) from the western Iranian city of Kermanshah.
The statement added that drones bombarded the Daesh positions after the missile strikes.
On September 22, four gunmen attacked a military parade in Ahvaz, killing at least 25 people and wounding 69 others. A four-year-old boy was among the fallen victims.
Meanwhile, DaeshTakfiri militants have shot and killed the imam of a mosque in Iraq’s western province of Anbar after he delivered a sermon in condemnation of the extremists, and demanded an all-out campaign against them.
Qutri al-Obeidi of Hashd al-Sha’abi forces told al-Maalomah news website that Daesh terrorists stormed into Mounir Okab al-Duleimi’s house in the town of Rutbah, and opened fire at him.
Obeidi added that investigations showed Duleimi’s murder came in the wake of his Friday sermon.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, pledged on June 30 to hunt down Daesh terrorists across Iraq after a series of attacks and abductions carried out by the terrorist group.
“We will chase the remaining cells of terrorism in their hideouts and we will kill them, we will chase them everywhere, in the mountains and the desert,” Abadi said.
Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.
On July 10 that year, the Iraqi prime minister formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.
In the run-up to Mosul’s liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.
Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.
Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.
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