The Operations Command of the Al-Anbar Popular Mobilization Forces revealed that it has "destroyed a new ISIS command center in the Al-Anbar desert and thwarted a large terrorist plot."
Operations Commander Qassem Musleh stated in a statement today that "in coordination with the joint operations and the Iraqi army aviation, and based on accurate intelligence information, the military operation achieved its objectives. The new ISIS command center was destroyed in the western Al-Anbar desert in the Wadi al-Malsi area, which has difficult geography." The statement added that "the operation led to the destruction of (7) newly built hideouts, where a stash of explosives, a medicine store, and financial documents confirming the return of cells deep into the Al-Anbar desert were found. However, this operation thwarted their return and their criminal plans."
Musleh indicated that the operation "saw the seizure of a pickup truck, the arrest of two individuals, as well as the seizure of the phones of the group’s members, a laptop, several light weapons, and 81mm mortars, along with a pass from a news agency used to easily navigate through security checkpoints inside one of the main hideouts that the enemy tried to conceal to mislead security forces and army aviation. Our forces also found tools for digging tunnels that were used to create underground hideouts."
Musleh confirmed that "the operation resulted in significant outcomes that broke the enemy's back as they had worked for months to establish these hideouts. Among the important results was the thwarting of an ISIS plan involving wearing security forces uniforms found inside one of the hideouts, which the enemy intended to wear to carry out a criminal act to tarnish the image of our security forces in the western regions. This is a strategy being employed by certain entities these days, but the vigilance of the Iraqis and the people of Al-Anbar is substantial, and their trust in the Popular Mobilization Forces is great."
It is worth noting that the Popular Mobilization Forces are regular Iraqi forces and part of the Iraqi armed forces, operating under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and comprising about 67 factions. The law for the Popular Mobilization Authority was approved after the Iraqi Parliament voted in favor of the law on November 26, 2016, as they fight alongside the Iraqi army against ISIS.
