Two bombings in the Iraqi capital killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens more. The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for both, saying that Shiite “polytheists” had been targeted. The first bombing struck near a popular ice cream shop in the Karrada district of Baghdad.
CENTCOM announced today that “three senior foreign fighters” in the Islamic State were killed in recent weeks. Two of them were reportedly involved in the group’s “external operations” and one of them was a trainer in the “Cubs of the Caliphate” program, which indoctrinates youth. The third jihadist helped oversee the Islamic State’s use of small drones.
The parade detailed a large presence inside Samarra for Muqtada al Sadr’s Peace Brigades.
Backed by the Iraqi air force, The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the umbrella organization of diverse militias, launched an offensive this week in Nineveh Province, southwest of Mosul, to capture territory from the Islamic State. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has embedded operatives in the PMF.
An Iranian general from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) this week began his new position as Tehran’s ambassador to Iraq. The selection of Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, the senior adviser to the commander of the IRGC extraterritorial branch the Qods Force, highlights Tehran’s strategy to assert itself as the dominant foreign power in its western neighbor following the Mosul campaign. Since 2003 all Iranian ambassadors to Iraq have been Qods Force officers.
Anjem Choudary, the British Islamist who is directly linked to Omar Bakri Muhammad, and who has formed several radical Islamist organizations, such as Al Muhajiroun, Al Ghurabaa, and Islam4UK, is among the newly designated terrorists.
The casket of an Iranian killed in combat in Iraq on February 25 was received in Tehran two days ago. The combatant’s funeral poster shows him wearing the arm patch of the Hezbollah Brigades, an Iraqi Shiite militia close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has been designated by the US Treasury as a terrorist group.
Testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee Counterterrorism and Intelligence, on the future of counterterrorism and addressing the evolving threat to domestic security.
A monument dedicated to an Iranian general has been erected in Iraq for the first time in the country’s modern history. The landmark commemorates Hamid Taghavi, a commander in the Qods Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ extraterritorial branch.
A former Guantanamo detainee known as Jamal al Harith (formerly Ronald Fiddler) launched a suicide attack with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) south of Mosul earlier this week. He is at least the second former Guantanamo detainee to launch a suicide attack in or around Mosul on behalf of the Islamic State and its predecessor organization.
The US-led coalition targeted Rachid Kassim near Mosul, Iraq earlier this week. Kassim is an Islamic State operative responsible for “remote-controlling” attacks in France. He has been tied to several plots.
An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) member embedded with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces has been killed near Tal Afar, to the west of Mosul.
Along with Iran, Hezbollah helped the PMF “with training and planning, and with weapons and equipment” to the Popular Mobilization Forces with the knowledge of Iraq’s prime minister, according to Abu Mahdi al Muhandis.
Mahmud Al Isawi was killed as the US-led coalition has stepped up its efforts to help drive the Islamic State from its Syrian capital. The Pentagon said that 16 “significant members” of the organization’s external operations network have been killed in 2016.
The US military has targeted senior and mid-level Islamic State leaders, external operations planners, and military commanders while also striking the group’s military and civilian infrastructure throughout Iraq and Syria in an effort to deny it territory and deal it a “lasting defeat.”
The announcement is part of a US military effort to stay ahead of criticism from media and international non-governmental organizations for striking jihadists as they use protected sites to attack allied forces.
CJTFOIR has launched 76 strikes in and around Raqqah since Dec. 20. For comparison, the US launched 23 airstrikes against the Islamic State in and around Mosul during the same time period.
The establishment of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an extension of Iran’s plan to export the revolution, which keeps war against Sunni extremists from reaching the country’s borders, a senior adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force argues.
State has upped the reward for Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as the Islamic State has been under significant pressure in Iraq. The $25 million reward puts Baghdadi on par with Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of al Qaeda.
The Defense Department has confirmed that Boubaker al-Hakim, a French-Tunisian Islamic State leader, was killed in Raqqa, Syria on Nov. 26. Al-Hakim had ties to Ansar al Sharia Tunisia, an al Qaeda-affiliated group, before defecting to the Islamic State’s cause. He admittedly assassinated one Tunisian politician in 2013 and knew the assailants responsible for a second slaying.
According to CENTCOM, Islamic State fighters were using the Al Salem hospital complex as “a base of operations and command and control headquarters.”
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a new video featuring John Cantlie, who discusses the destruction of four of the five bridges in Mosul. The US-led coalition destroyed or damaged the bridges in November at the request of the Iraqi government in order to interrupt the flow of suicide bombers driving vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs).
The Islamic State has claimed 1,034 suicide bombings in Iraq, Syria and Libya through the first eleven months of 2016. Many of the recent claimed suicide attacks have taken place in and around Mosul, where the so-called caliphate is trying to thwart a multi-sided offensive.
The Islamic State has released a message from its new spokesman, Abu al Hassan al Muhajir. Abu Muhammad al Adnani had served in that role for years until his demise in August. Muhajir tries to rally Sunnis to the Islamic State’s cause in Iraq and elsewhere.
Abdullah Ahmed al Meshedani manages foreign fighters as they enter Iraq and Syria, while Abdelilah Himich and Basil Hassan are planners for the Islamic State’s external operations network.
Akram al Kabi, a senior Iraqi militia leader, says IRGC Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani is in Iraq. Soleimani’s last confirmed sighting was on Oct. 28 in Tehran, Iran.
The Islamic State claims to have carried out 120 “martyrdom operations” in Iraq and Syria in October. Seventy-nine (79) of these suicide bombings were purportedly launched around the city of Mosul. The so-called caliphate has claimed 902 “martyrdom operations” in Iraq, Libya and Syria during the first ten months of 2016. If accurate, then the group is carrying out suicide attacks at a historically high rate.
Iranian-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched an operation in the western axis of Mosul on Oct. 30, and announced on Nov. 2 that they cut off the Islamic State’s supply route from Mosul to Raqqa. The PMF is advancing towards the town of Tal Afar west of Mosul, which has Sunni Turkmen population.
The Islamic State has released an audio message from Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. It is the first message from Baghdadi in nearly one year. Baghdadi frames the wars being fought in Iraq and elsewhere in sectarian terms and says that his men are waging a “grand jihad” against their many enemies.
At least 11 rocket launchers, four howitzers (including two US-made M198 howitzers), one American-made M1 Abrams, and one US M88 Recovery Vehicle were spotted in a Hezbollah Brigades convoy moving towards Mosul.