ISIS Bagman flees with payroll
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State’s so-designated “finance minister” has fled the group’s havens in Anbar province, carrying large amounts of money allocated for fighters’ salaries, a paramilitary source was quoted saying.
Qatari al-Obaidi, a senior leader at the Tribal Mobilization, told Alsumaria News that Islamic State’s finance official, Sabbar Batoushi, fled the town of Annah, 210 kilometers west of the city of Ramadi, carrying large amounts of the group’s funds.
Obaidi said the militants declared a curfew in the town in search for the fugitive leader.
Since Iraqi government forces launched a wide-scale campaign to retake Islamic State-held regions in October 2016, the militant group has reportedly suffered financial constraints and many of it senior leaders have either died in combat or fled battlefields.
Islamic State has held the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim since 2014, when it proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Recent news reports have said military reinforcements were sent to areas near those towns preparing for an invasion against IS. The Iraqi Joint Operations Command has, meanwhile, declared that its coming battle would be in IS-held Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk. So far, U.S.-backed government forces recaptured Mosul, Islamic State’s former capital, and the town of Tal Afar, a major haven west of Mosul.
ISIS Turbans, 3 kidz die in bombing attack in Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Two female children and three Islamic State militants were killed on Tuesday in south and west of Mosul, a security source said.
“Two children were killed, while two others were wounded as an explosive from the war remnants exploded in Imam Gharbi village, Qayyarah, south of Mosul,” the source told Shafaq News.
In related news, the source said, “al-hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), backed by army jets, repulsed an infiltration attempt by IS, near Tal Sufuq, west of Mosul, on borders between Iraq and Syria. Three IS militants were killed.”
In July, Iraqi forces took over the village, which was re-invaded by the militant group just before the government declared victory over the group in the city. Later on July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over IS militants who had held the second largest Iraqi city since 2014. More than 25000 militants were killed throughout the campaign, which started in October.
Since the city was declared free, security troops continue to comb western Mosul areas for hidden IS cells.
ISIS linked family gunned down in Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Three persons, including a woman, were shot dead by armed individuals Tuesday in eastern Mosul for having links with Islamic State militants.
A security source told Shafaq News webste that unknown armed persons invaded a house in al-Sukkar district, northeast of Mosul, and killed three members of one family, while a fourth woman was wounded.
According to the source, the family had sons who served as Islamic State members, one of whom had been killed in battles. The woman killed in the raid was a member of the extremist group’s Hisbah (vigilantism) division.
Iraqi government forces consummated the recapture of Mosul early July. The eastern section of the city was retaken late January. Up to 30.000 members of the group had been killed in more than eight months of military operations in the city, Iraqi commanders had declared.
The Iraqi security forces had regularly combed areas recaptured from the militants in search for remnant cells. Local authorities had also declared plans to isolate militants families in rehabilitation camps, and to deport foreign nationals to their home countries.
ISIS hunts down disidents
Deir Ezzor (Syria Newa) – The Islamic state group carried out, on Tuesday, an extensive security operation in the city of Mayadin, east of Deir Ezzor, to search for foreign members who escaped the group along with their families.
Qasioun News reported that the IS militants set checkpoints and deployed patrols in the city of Mayadin, east of Deir Ezzor, to search for foreign members who escaped the group along with their families, but they were unable to capture any of the escaped members.
Meanwhile, the IS militants attacked Deir Ezzor Airbase, and managed to seize it completely, then violent clashes broke out between the militants and Syrian army forces and allied militias in the area.
It is noteworthy that the IS Emir of the so-called Islamic Police (al-Hisba), known as Abu Khuzaima Al-Tunsy, surrendered himself, along with 5 other members of the Islamic State group, late on Monday, to the Syrian regime forces.