The Security Media Cell stated in a statement that the Operations Command of Diyala Governorate, where the Hamrin Mountains are located, in addition to elements of the Popular Mobilization Militia, began carrying out the operation.
The Security Media Cell said that the operation is carried out from 5 axes in order to inspect the mountainous areas.
This operation comes after a series of Iraqi air strikes targeting gatherings of ISIS militants in these mountains in recent days.
Last November, the Iraqi forces launched a military operation in the Hamrin Mountains, and the Security Media Cell said at the time that the bombing led to the destruction of 8 hideouts for militants in the area.
Iraqi military leaders believe that ISIS is taking these mountains as a haven for its militants, given their extreme ruggedness and distance from urban areas.
In late 2017, Iraq announced the defeat of the terrorist organization ISIS, after it regained most of the territory that the organization had seized in 2014.
However, ISIS resorted to a guerrilla war that has increased in intensity and danger in recent weeks, especially in the governorates of Diyala, Salah al-Din, Nineveh and Kirkuk.
In early December, he managed to take over a village that ISIS had controlled for hours, before the Iraqi forces succeeded in recapturing it and expelling the organization’s militants.
This is the first time that ISIS has established control over a geographical area since its defeat in Iraq years ago.
Analysts say that the recent movements of ISIS in the governorates of Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah al-Din and Nineveh, in northern Iraq, have increased cooperation between the federal government forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, especially in the soft areas, disputed between the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the government of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
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