Baghdad continues to work with both the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and government in Damascus to exchange information and intelligence about remaining ISIS terrorists in the adjacent countries.
Maj. Gen. Tahsin Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operation Command, said that the Iraqi government is in close coordination with neighboring Syria in “two ways.”
“First with the SDF through the US-led coalition, to exchange intelligence and information regarding the ISIS prisoners in SDF prisons,” Khafaji said. “Second with Damascus, as Iraq is part of the operation room that the Syrian Defense ministry established to share intelligence and information against ISIS.”
The “operation room” coalition is composed of four countries, namely Iran, Russia, Iraq and Syria.
The coalition between the four countries was established in September 2015, to cooperate in gathering information useful in the fight against ISIS.
At the height of its power between 2014 and 2016, ISIS controlled an area roughly the size of Great Britain, spread across Iraq and Syria. The group was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However, a spate of attacks, kidnappings, and ambushes suggest an insurgency is already underway.
According to an intelligence assessment by the Center for Global Policy, ISIS has 3,500 to 4,000 active and 8,000 inactive militants in Iraq.
ISIS has been held responsible for a spate of attacks on the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and units of IMIS.
Late on Friday, the IMIS said four of its fighters were killed and six injured in an ISIS attack in northern Diyala.
In a statement on Thursday evening, the IMIS said its units had come under attack in Khanaqin, Jurf al-Nasr (formally known as Jurf al-Sakhar) and on the Syrian-Iraqi border in the Akashat area of western Anbar.