PMF says senior ISIS figure killed in operation in western Nineveh

NINEVEH — Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces announced Wednesday that one of its units killed a senior Islamic State figure during an operation in the Baaj desert of Nineveh governorate.

In a statement, the PMF said their force killed three ISIS members in an operation carried out “in retaliation for the martyrs of the Counter Terrorism Service.”

The statement said the operation, conducted under the supervision of the PMF’s Nineveh Operations Command, resulted in the death of a senior ISIS member, whom it described as the group’s logistics official in the Baaj area.

Three Counter Terrorism Service officers were killed and four others wounded in late May when an explosive device detonated during a field inspection in the desert southwest of Nineveh, the agency said. The device was left behind by Islamic State militants, according to a CTS statement.

Islamic State declared its self-styled caliphate in 2014, controlling large parts of Iraq and Syria before losing its territory by 2019. The group continues to operate through sleeper cells, particularly in desert and mountainous areas.