The US and Iraqi armies carried out a raid on the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in western Iraq on Thursday and killed 15 of its fighters, the US military command for the Middle East (CENTCOM) announced on Friday, reporting seven wounded in the American ranks.
“CENTCOM forces and Iraqi security forces jointly conducted a raid in western Iraq in the early hours of August 29 [jeudi]causing the deaths of 15 members of the Islamic State,” CENTCOM reported Friday evening on X.
“This IS group was equipped with many weapons, grenades and explosive belts. There is no indication that there were civilian casualties,” the same source added.
The operation “targeted ISIS leaders in order to disrupt and undermine ISIS’s ability to plan, organize, and carry out attacks against civilians in Iraq and against U.S. citizens, allies, and partners in the region and beyond,” the U.S. military command said.
Seven American soldiers were injured during the operation but are “in stable condition”, a CENTCOM official told AFP on the night of Friday to Saturday.
The US Command said the Iraqi military “continues to explore the raid site,” without giving further details about the operation.
The EI “remains a threat to the region, our allies and our national territory,” the American army still believes.
Washington deploys about 2,500 troops in Iraq and nearly 900 in Syria, as part of the international coalition created to fight the Islamic State group.
After its meteoric rise to power in 2014 and the conquest of vast territories in Iraq and neighboring Syria, IS saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse under the blow of successive offensives in these two countries.
Although Iraqi authorities declared “victory” over ISIS in late 2017, jihadist cells continue to sporadically attack soldiers and police officers, particularly in rural and remote areas outside major cities.
Iraq announced on August 15 the postponement of the end of the mission on its territory of the international anti-jihadist coalition led by Washington, justifying this delay by the “latest developments” in an explosive regional context.