The U.S. military’s Central Command alleged the militants were armed with numerous weapons during the attack Thursday (August 29, 2024), which Iraqi forces said happened in Anbar Desert. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“The U.S. military took part in an Iraqi raid in the country’s western region that killed 15 people as forces targeted suspected militants from the Islamic State group,” the American military said early Saturday (August 31, 2024).

For years after dislodging the militants from their self-declared caliphate across Iraq and Syria, U.S. forces have continued fighting the Islamic State group, though the casualties from Friday’s (August 30) raid were higher than others in the time since.

The U.S. military’s Central Command alleged the militants were armed with “numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive ’suicide’ belts” during the attack Thursday (August 29, 2024), which Iraqi forces said happened in the country’s Anbar Desert.

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“This operation targeted ISIS leaders to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond,” Central Command said, using an acronym for the militant group. “Iraqi Security Forces continue to further exploit the locations raided.”

It added, “There is no indication of civilian casualties.”

An Iraqi military statement said, “Airstrikes targeted the hideouts, followed by an airborne operation.”

“Among the dead were key ISIS leaders,” Iraq’s military said, without identifying them. “All hideouts, weapons, and logistical support were destroyed, explosive belts were safely detonated, and important documents, identification papers and communication devices were seized.”

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It wasn’t immediately clear why it took two days for the U.S. to acknowledge it took part in the raid. Iraq did not say the U.S. took part in the operation when initially announcing it as politicians debate the future of having American troops in the country.

At its peak, the Islamic State group ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom where it attempted to enforce its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates.

A coalition of more than 80 countries, led by the United States, was formed to fight the group, which lost its hold on the territory it controlled in Iraq and 2017 and in Syria in 2019. However, the militants have continued to operate in the Anbar Desert in Iraq and Syria, while claiming attacks carried out by others elsewhere in the world. The Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan is known to carry out intense assaults.

This file image released by the Department of Defence on October 30, 2019, and displayed at a Pentagon briefing, shows an image of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An Iraqi court issued a death sentence against one of the wives of the late brutal Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, alleging that she was complicit in crimes committed against Yazidi women captured by the militant group. File
| Photo Credit: AP

An Iraqi court has sentenced to death a wife of slain Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on charges of detaining Yazidi women, the judiciary said on July 10.

The wife of the polygamous Baghdadi was brought back to Iraq after being detained in Turkiye, judicial sources said under cover of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

“The Karkh (west Baghdad) criminal court sentenced to death the wife of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for the crime of working with the Daesh terrorist group and detaining Yazidi women in her house,” the Supreme Judicial Council said on its website, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

The slain leader’s wife detained the Yazidis who “were later kidnapped” by IS fighters in the Sinjar district of northern Iraq, it added.

A judicial source identified her as Asma Mohammed.

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Washington announced in October 2019 that U.S. troops had killed Baghdadi in an operation in northwestern Syria, five years after he proclaimed a “caliphate” across swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

During their lightning advance through northern Iraq in 2014, the Islamist extremists of IS singled out the non-Muslim Yazidis, systematically killing thousands of men and forcing women into sexual slavery.

Over several years, Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences as well as life prison terms under the penal code for membership in “a terrorist group”.

Among those convicted in Iraq were more than 500 foreign men and women found guilty of joining IS.

Iraq announced in February it had secured “the repatriation of the family” of Baghdadi, with a judicial source telling AFP that Baghdadi’s wife, “detained in Turkiye”, had been returned along with her children.

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The announcement coincided with a broadcast of an interview with “Baghdadi’s wife” by Saudi-owned pan-Arab TV channel Al Arabiya. It named her as Asma Mohammed.

In November 2019, Turkiye said it had arrested a wife of Baghdadi, whom Turkish media identified as Asma Fawzi Mohammed Al-Qubaysi, in June 2018.

U.S.-backed forces defeated IS in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later. But remnants of the group continue to attack civilians and security personnel in both countries.

A view shows plumes of smoke rising, in Derbent, Russia, June 23, 2024, in this still image obtained from a video.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

More than 15 police officers and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, were killed by armed militants in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan on Sunday, its governor Sergei Melikov said in a video statement early Monday, June 24, 2024.

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The gunmen opened fire on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police post in two cities, according to the authorities.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee described the attacks in the predominantly Muslim region with a history of armed insurgency as terrorist acts.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were declared days of mourning in the region.

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said a group of armed men shot at a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the Caspian Sea. Both the church and the synagogue caught fire, according to state media. Almost simultaneously, reports appeared about an attack on a church and a traffic police post in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala.

Authorities announced a counter-terrorist operation in the region. The Anti-Terrorist Committee said five gunmen were “eliminated.” The governor said six “bandits” had been “liquidated.” The conflicting numbers couldn’t be immediately reconciled and it wasn’t clear how many militants were involved in the attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. The authorities launched a criminal investigation on the charge of a terrorist act.

Russian state news agency Tass cited law enforcement sources as saying that a Dagestani official was detained over his sons’ involvement in the attacks.

Melikov said in the video statement that the situation in the region was under control of the law enforcement and local authorities, and vowed that the investigation of the attacks will continue until “all the sleeping cells” of the militants are uncovered.

He claimed, without providing evidence, that the attacks might have been prepared from abroad, and referenced what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine in an apparent attempt to link the attacks to it.

In March, gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, killing 145 people. An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian officials also sought to link Ukraine to the attack without providing any evidence. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an explosion in a Shiite Muslim neighbourhood in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul that killed at least four people.

Seven others were critically wounded in the attack on October 26, according to Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief.

Islamic State affiliates claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Friday through its news agency Aamaq, saying it “managed to leave a booby-trapped suitcase” inside a Shiite gathering place that exploded, killing and injuring about 35 people and inflicting heavy damage on a sports club.

Video taken after the explosion shows part of a building with its windows blown out and a fire inside. Shattered glass and other debris are strewn across the street below.

The scale of the damage was clearer on Friday morning. There were craters in the ground and most of the interior was gutted. Workers picked their way through boxing gloves and gym equipment on the blood-splattered floor.

The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamic State group affiliate in the country, which has carried out major assaults on schools, hospitals and mosques. The group has also attacked other Shiite areas of Afghanistan in recent years. IS has been waging a campaign of violence since the Taliban took power in August 2021.

With tensions spiking in the Middle East, U.S. forces in the region are facing increasing threats as a Navy warship shot down missiles appearing to head toward Israel on October 19 and American bases in Iraq and Syria were repeatedly targeted by drone attacks.

Later on October 19, a U.S. official said there had been an attack near Baghdad’s airport, where U.S. forces are hosted. The official said one projectile was shot down and another struck, but according to early reports, no one was injured. It wasn’t clear what type of munition was fired. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss reports not yet made public, said information was still being gathered.

Earlier, the USS Carney, a Navy destroyer in the northern Red Sea, intercepted three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The action by Carney potentially represented the first shots by the U.S. military in the defense of Israel in this conflict.

Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters the missiles were “potentially” headed toward Israel but said the U.S. hasn’t finished its assessment of what they were targeting.

A U.S. official said they don’t believe the missiles — which were shot down over the water — were aimed at the U.S. warship. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations that had not yet been announced.

But an array of other drone attacks over the past three days did target U.S. bases, including one in southern Syria on Thursday that caused minor injuries.

The rash of violence comes in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel almost two weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

In recent days, however, a number of militant groups across the region — from Hezbollah to the Houthis — have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel. Since Tuesday, militants have launched at least four drone attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria where U.S. troops train local defense forces and support the mission to counter the Islamic State group.

The attacks fuel escalating worries in the U.S. and the West that the war in Israel could expand into a larger regional conflict.

“That’s exactly what we are trying to prevent,” Ryder said.

The most recent drone attack was on October 19 at al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq posted a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, saying they had fired a salvo of rockets at the base and “they hit their targets directly and precisely.” A U.S. official confirmed the latest attack but said it was too early to assess any impact.

Also on October 19, the al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria was struck by drones. U.S. troops have maintained a presence at the base for a number of years to train Syrian allies and monitor Islamic State militant activity.

The Pentagon said one drone was shot down, but another hit the base and caused minor injuries.

The garrison is located on a vital road that often used by Iranian-backed militants to ferry weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon — and Israel’s doorstep.

Syrian opposition activists also said there was a separate drone attack on an oil facility in eastern Syria that houses American troops. Omar Abu Layla, a Europe-based activist who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet, said three drones with explosives struck the Conoco gas field in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, also confirmed explosions at the site.

On October 17, militants launched three drones against two Iraq bases that the U.S. uses to train forces and conduct operations against the Islamic State. During the spate of launches, one warning turned out to be a false alarm at al-Asad, but it sent personnel rushing into bunkers. During that incident, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died, Ryder said.

He said the Pentagon does not yet have confirmation on who launched the drone attacks but said the U.S. ”will take all necessary actions to defend U.S. and coalition forces against any threat.” He said any military response would come “at a time and a manner of our choosing.”

On the intercepts by the Carney, Ryder said the strikes were done because the Houthi missiles “posed a potential threat” based on their flight profile. He added that the U.S. is prepared to do whatever is needed “to protect our partners and our interests in this important region.” He said the U.S. is still assessing what the target was, but said no U.S. forces or civilians on the ground were injured.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have expressed support for the Palestinians and threatened Israel. Last week, in Yemen’s Sanaa, which is held by the Houthi rebels still at war with a Saudi-led coalition, demonstrators crowded the streets waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags. The rebels’ slogan long has been, “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse of the Jews; victory to Islam.”

Last week, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the rebel group’s leader, warned the United States against intervening in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, threatening that his forces would retaliate by firing drones and missiles.

When approached Thursday, two Houthi officials declined to comment on the incident. One said he was unaware of the incident, while the second said he did not have the authority to speak about it.