Iraqi military intelligence finds ISIS tunnel, weapons in Anbar governorate

ANBAR – Iraq’s Military Intelligence announced Saturday the discovery of a 15-meter-deep tunnel in the Rutba district of Anbar governorate, used by ISIS. A metal container filled with light weapons, ammunition, and various materials was found adjacent to the tunnel.

“Based on precise intelligence information, a tunnel used by ISIS militants for movement was uncovered,” the Military Intelligence Directorate said in a statement. The directorate’s engineering teams removed and destroyed the materials on site and completely sealed the tunnel.

In 2014, ISIS seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria, declaring a caliphate and instigating widespread terror. Iraqi and Peshmerga forces, supported by a U.S.-led coalition, ousted ISIS from Iraq in 2017.

The group lost the final parts of Syrian territory in 2019 to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

A United Nations report in January estimated that ISIS still has between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters operating across Iraq and Syria. ISIS remnants continue to execute deadly attacks from remote areas and desert hideouts.

Iraq has seen a surge in militant attacks recently. On May 14, an army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack in Salah Al-Din governorate. A week later, a vehicle carrying five Iraqi army officers near Suleiman Beg was targeted by a bomb, resulting in one death and four injuries.

The next day, five family members were killed by an improvised explosive device on the Baiji-Haditha Road in Anbar governorate, officials confirmed the device was recently planted.