In an operation last month, Iraqi forces and U.S. troops killed a senior Islamic State group commander wanted by the United States and several other prominent militants, U.S. Central Command and the Iraqi military said Friday.
The August 29 operation in Iraq’s western Anbar province also involved members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and the Iraqi Air Force.
Among the more than a dozen militants killed in the operation was a Tunisian ISIS commander known as Abu Ali Al-Tunisi, for whom the U.S. Treasury Department had offered $5 million in exchange for information. Ahmad Hamed Zwein, the deputy commander of the Islamic State in Iraq, was also killed.
In a statement, the US Central Command identified two other IS leaders killed: Ahmad Hamid Husayn Abd-al-Jalil al-Ithawi, responsible for all IS operations in Iraq, and Shakir Abud Ahmad al-Issawi, responsible for overseeing military operations in western Iraq.
Friday’s announcement was not the first news of the operation.
Authorities had already reported two weeks ago that the US military and Iraq had launched a joint raid targeting suspected ISIS militants in the country’s western desert, killing at least 15 people and wounding seven U.S. soldiers.
CENTCOM said Friday that 14 “ISIS operatives” were killed in the operation, and the Iraqi military said the 14 were identified through DNA testing. U.S. and Iraqi officials have not said who the 15th person was killed.
Five U.S. soldiers were injured in the operation, while two others were injured in falls. One of the fallen soldiers was transported out of the area, while one of the wounded was evacuated for further treatment, a U.S. defense official said at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation that had not yet been made public.
In its announcement Friday, the Iraqi military said the operation also seized weapons, computers, smartphones and 10 explosive belts.
The Islamic State group seized territory at the height of its power and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the extremists lost the last swath of territory they once controlled in eastern Syria.
At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom, where it imposed its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on minority religious groups and harsh punishments for Muslims deemed apostates.
Despite their defeat, attacks by ISIS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria are on the rise In recent years, dozens of people have been killed and injured.
Earlier Friday, U.S. Central Command said its forces killed a member of an ISIS attack cell in a strike in eastern Syria. It added that the individual had planted an improvised explosive device for a planned attack against anti-IS coalition forces and their partners, an apparent reference to the Syrian Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Last August, the United States agreed to begin negotiations to end U.S. and anti-ISIS coalition forces’ involvement in the fight against IS. About 2,500 U.S. troops are deployed in the country, and their departure will take into account the security situation on the ground and the capabilities of the Iraqi armed forces, officials said.
