Sabah Al-Numan, spokesperson for Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service, speaks to the media about intelligence efforts to track down ISIS remnants.
Iraq builds detailed database to target remaining ISIS leaders
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s security forces have compiled a comprehensive intelligence database on the remaining ISIS militants, particularly high-ranking leaders, and are using it to track and eliminate them, a senior military official said Saturday.
Sabah Al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, told the state-owned channel Al-Iraqiya that Iraq’s intelligence agencies have “a complete and detailed database on the remnants of ISIS, especially first- and second-tier leaders.” He said the database is a key element of a new strategy designed by the Joint Operations Command under Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani. The plan involves preemptive operations, sustained pressure and close monitoring of ISIS operatives to prevent any resurgence.
Al-Numan emphasized that Iraq’s security and intelligence apparatus, with support from the international coalition and Kurdistan Regional Government security forces, has gathered extensive information on ISIS movements and networks. This intelligence led to the recent killing of Abdullah Makki Muslih Al-Rufayi, the so-called “Wali of Iraq and Syria,” in what officials described as a major blow to the group.
“There are ongoing attempts by ISIS to reorganize outside Iraq, particularly in Africa’s Sahel region, as the group has lost its operational capabilities inside Iraq,” Al-Numan said.
He credited a series of intelligence-led operations for weakening the group, notably Operation Lion’s Leap in August last year, which resulted in the killing of 14 ISIS leaders in Anbar and the capture of critical documents that expanded Iraq’s intelligence database.
Following Makki’s death, Iraqi forces, in coordination with Kurdistan security agencies, arrested several ISIS operatives, including five individuals detained by Kurdistan’s security forces and seven others captured in a Counter-Terrorism Service raid. Among those detained were two women who acted as couriers, relaying messages between Makki and his network.
Although ISIS was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017, remnants of the group still pose a threat, and security forces continue to conduct daily operations against these cells. The Islamic State, which declared a caliphate in 2014, lost its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.