CJTFOIR has launched 76 strikes in and around Raqqah since Dec. 20. For comparison, the US launched 23 airstrikes against the Islamic State in and around Mosul during the same time period.
The establishment of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an extension of Iran’s plan to export the revolution, which keeps war against Sunni extremists from reaching the country’s borders, a senior adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force argues.
State has upped the reward for Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as the Islamic State has been under significant pressure in Iraq. The $25 million reward puts Baghdadi on par with Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of al Qaeda.
The Defense Department has confirmed that Boubaker al-Hakim, a French-Tunisian Islamic State leader, was killed in Raqqa, Syria on Nov. 26. Al-Hakim had ties to Ansar al Sharia Tunisia, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, before defecting to the Islamic State’s cause. He admittedly assassinated one Tunisian politician in 2013 and knew the assailants responsible for a second slaying.
According to CENTCOM, Islamic State fighters were using the Al Salem hospital complex as “a base of operations and command and control headquarters.”
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a new video featuring John Cantlie, who discusses the destruction of four of the five bridges in Mosul. The US-led coalition destroyed or damaged the bridges in November at the request of the Iraqi government in order to interrupt the flow of suicide bombers driving vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs).
The Islamic State has claimed 1,034 suicide bombings in Iraq, Syria and Libya through the first eleven months of 2016. Many of the recent claimed suicide attacks have taken place in and around Mosul, where the so-called caliphate is trying to thwart a multi-sided offensive.
The Islamic State has released a message from its new spokesman, Abu al Hassan al Muhajir. Abu Muhammad al Adnani had served in that role for years until his demise in August. Muhajir tries to rally Sunnis to the Islamic State’s cause in Iraq and elsewhere.
Abdullah Ahmed al Meshedani manages foreign fighters as they enter Iraq and Syria, while Abdelilah Himich and Basil Hassan are planners for the Islamic State’s external operations network.
Akram al Kabi, a senior Iraqi militia leader, says IRGC Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani is in Iraq. Soleimani’s last confirmed sighting was on Oct. 28 in Tehran, Iran.
The Islamic State claims to have carried out 120 “martyrdom operations” in Iraq and Syria in October. Seventy-nine (79) of these suicide bombings were purportedly launched around the city of Mosul. The so-called caliphate has claimed 902 “martyrdom operations” in Iraq, Libya and Syria during the first ten months of 2016. If accurate, then the group is carrying out suicide attacks at a historically high rate.
Iranian-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched an operation in the western axis of Mosul on Oct. 30, and announced on Nov. 2 that they cut off the Islamic State’s supply route from Mosul to Raqqa. The PMF is advancing towards the town of Tal Afar west of Mosul, which has Sunni Turkmen population.
The Islamic State has released an audio message from Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. It is the first message from Baghdadi in nearly one year. Baghdadi frames the wars being fought in Iraq and elsewhere in sectarian terms and says that his men are waging a “grand jihad” against their many enemies.
At least 11 rocket launchers, four howitzers (including two US-made M198 howitzers), one American-made M1 Abrams, and one US M88 Recovery Vehicle were spotted in a Hezbollah Brigades convoy moving towards Mosul.
IRGC-QF Commander Qassem Soleimani was spotted in Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government area yesterday visiting the family of a deceased Kurdish Peshmarga commander. The visit marked the first confirmed sighting of Soleimani in Iraq since the siege of Mosul was launched last week.
The fight in Iraq, as in other jihadist theaters, ebbs and flows. For the Islamic State, it is currently retreating from many of the cities it once held. But do not expect a lasting defeat of the Islamic State.
The anti-Islamic State coalition, which includes Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite militias, has begun the operation to retake Mosul. Iranian-backed Shiite militias are expected to play a key role in the upcoming battle.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claims that the so-called caliphate launched 53 “martyrdom operations” in Iraq and Syria in September. This is less than any previous month in 2016. But the Islamic State has claimed 782 suicide bombings in Iraq, Syria and Libya during the first nine months of 2016, for an average of 87 per month. If accurate, this is a historically high rate.
An Iranian media outlet citing unnamed sources has claimed that security forces have killed the designated emir of the Islamic State in Iran. The narrative matches some of the accounts of an operation confirmed by authorities last month. Iranian officials and major news outlets, however, have not commented on the latest claims.
The US-led coalition has killed 13 Islamic State leaders in and around Mosul, Iraq in the past month. Three of them were Chechens, highlighting the important role that foreign fighters play in the group’s chain of command. According to Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Colonel John Dorrian, another fallen jihadist was responsible for manufacturing chemical weapons to be used in the defense of Mosul.
US warplanes bombed an Islamic State chemical weapons factory near the town of Qayyarah. US forces based at Qayyarah Airfiled West, or Q-West, have been recently targeted with a shell containing a mustard agent.
The IRGC’s construction arm is helping to develop a massive complex in a Shiite shrine in Najaf Iraq. Its partner, the Headquarters for the Restoration of Holy Shrines, is a front organization for the Qods Force.
Iraqi forces retook control of Shirqat in order to secure its supply lines south of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. The Islamic State is also thought to have fired a shell filled with a mustard agent at US troops nearby.
The US military announced today that it killed Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad, the Islamic State’s “Minister of Information” and central shura member, in an airstrike near Raqqah, the jihadist group’s capital in Syria, ten days ago.
Iraqi Shiite militia leader Akram al Kabi has met with top Iranian government official in Iran. Kabi, who is a member of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces that has become an official part of the Iraqi government, boldly proclaimed his allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
In the third episode of his “Brief Messages to a Victorious Ummah” series, Ayman al Zawahiri calls on “the mujahideen of the Levant” to help the jihadists in Iraq “reorganize themselves” for a “protracted” campaign of “guerrilla war.” Zawahiri clearly expects the Islamic State’s caliphate claim to be rendered moot and he wants jihadists to follow a new strategy in Iraq going forward.
The Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militia has shown off a considerable troop deployment to the frontlines of Aleppo just days after Iranian media reported the move.
Qassem Soleimani will play a “major” role in upcoming operations to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, according to the spokesman of the Iraqi Population Mobilization Front.
The Iraqi Prime Minister’s order will establish Iraq’s own IRGC, institutionalizing Tehran’s influence in the country. This development follows similar trends in Iran and Lebanon.
The radical Shia cleric responded to the US military deployment of an additional 560 troops to aid in the fight against the Islamic State by threatening to attack them.