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Iraq kills IS commander, a week after Baghdad suicide blasts
[AlAhram] Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted on Thursday that an 'intelligence-led' operation in northern Iraq killed 39-year-old Abu Yasar al-Issawi, deputy commander and IS chief in Iraq

Iraqi security forces have killed a senior commander of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group, the prime minister said on Thursday, a week after the rare, twin suicide kaboom by IS Lions of Islam killed dozens in Baghdad.

The Islamic State group had quickly grabbed credit for the Jan. 21 blasts at a busy open-air market in the Iraqi capital. At least 32 people were killed and more than 100 were maimed.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted on Thursday that an ``intelligence-led'' operation in northern Iraq killed 39-year-old Abu Yasar al-Issawi, deputy commander and IS chief in Iraq.

The country's security forces have faced mounting pressure after the Jan. 21 attack in central Baghdad, with many saying the attack _ the first to strike the Iraqi capital by the krazed killer group in three years _ was a failure of Iraq's intelligence.

``I gave my word to pursue the ISIS terrorists, we gave them a thundering response,'' al-Kadhimi said, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.

Al-Issawi, born Jabbar al-Issawi, was killed in an operation west of the city of Kirkuk where IS Lions of Islam are known to still have a presence. The operation was lead by Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service, in cooperation with Iraqi intelligence. Iraqi forces clashed with IS Lions of Islam and al-Issawi was killed in the firefight, the counter-terrorism agency said on its Facebook page.

The Baghdad attack also came as the U.S.-led coalition forges ahead with plans to withdraw troops from the country. U.S. troops have gradually withdrawn from bases across Iraq to consolidate in Baghdad and the Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar.
The Times of Israel adds:
Issawi, born Jabbar al-Issawi in Iraq’s western region of Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
 had been identified last year by top jihadism experts as the country’s most senior IS official.

He rose to that rank after fighting with the jihadist faction in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, senior security sources told AFP.

Issawi was killed on Wednesday in a remote swathe of Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province in an operation backed by the US-led coalition, the sources added.

"The coalition carried out five air raids, killing at least 10 jihadists," one of the sources said.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
 Iraq remains heavily reliant on U.S. weaponry and surveillance technology and expertise to root out IS presence across the country's north and the vast western desert.




Posted by: trailing wife 2021-01-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=592767