Iraqi Army vehicles pass through Kurdish Peshmerga forces on their way to the Makhmour front in 2016. File photo: Farzin Hassan/Rudaw.
On July 17, the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a joint security operation against the remaining cells of ISIS in the area of Makhmur, southwest of the city of Erbit, according to the Iraqi news outlet Baghdad Post.
The Iraqi Kurdistan 24 TV reported that the US-led coalition is supporting the new operation. According to the TV channel, warplanes of the coalition conducted several airstrikes on caves and hideouts of the terrorist group in the mountain chain of Makhmur.
During the first day of the operation, Peshmerga forces killed fourteen fighters of ISIS and destroyed more than 31 hideouts of the terrorist group in mount Qarjugh.
From its side, the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq reported that ISIS fighters ambushed a unit of Peshmerga forces in the mountain chain of Mahmud. As a result of the ambush, seven Kurdish fighters were killed and fourteen others were injured.
Despite the resistance from ISIS cells, the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga forces will likely complete their mission in Makhmur within days.
The term ‘fighting a losing battle’ comes to mind especially when it was announced in the news today that Daesh are making a comeback in Iraq less than a year after Baghdad declared victory.