Shafaq News/ On Thursday, the Iraqi Air Force struck ISIS sites in Hemrin Lake in Diyala Governorate.
Iraq's Security Media Cell announced that the Military Intelligence Directorate targeted an essential den east of Hemrin within the Diyala Operations Command sector.
The hideout is demolished, and many terrorists were killed." The Cell added.
In 2017, Iraq declared final victory over ISIS after Iraqi forces drove its last remnants from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.
Yet, ISIS still has sleeper cells in several Iraqi Governorates, including Diyala, a part of the so-called “Triangle of Death.”
In an interview with Shafaq News Agency, the official spokesperson for the North Axis Command of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Ali Hashem al-Husseini, said that the geographical and climatic factors prompted ISIS members to keep moving, stressing that their numbers are few in the Triangle of Death.
"Revenge" is the essential reason for ISIS operations in those areas. First, the Iraqi forces succeeded in destroying their hideouts and killing their leaders, and now, they seek revenge. Al-Husseini says.
The PMF military official stressed the need to increase security coordination between ground and air forces to prevent terrorist attacks, stressing that ISIS operations and their outcomes are much less than the media shows.
In turn, the security expert Fuad al-Bayati suggested that some support the presence of ISIS in the Triangle of Death.
According to him, the ISIS file is affected by political and regional factors and not only "security revenge."
Al-Bayati told our Agency that ISIS attacks are limited to rugged areas and security sectors adjacent to cities. This confirms that the terrorist organization does not have "social incubators" but rather geographical havens outside the security forces' control.