U.S. and Iraqi Commandos Targeted ISIS in Sprawling Operation

The number of insurgent attacks has increased, officials say, as Iraq and the United States negotiate a plan to wind down the U.S.-led military mission.

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Iraqi Special Forces during an operation against ISIS fighters in the desert of Anbar, Iraq, in 2022.

American and Iraqi commandos raided Islamic State hide-outs in western Iraq last week, killing at least 14 ISIS fighters in one of the most sweeping counterterrorism missions in the country in recent years.

Seven U.S. soldiers were injured as more than 200 troops from both countries, including back-up forces, hunted down fighters in bunkers over miles of remote terrain, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, adding that the size, scope and focus of the mission underscored the terrorist organization’s resurgence in recent months.

A senior insurgent commander overseeing Islamic State operations in the Middle East and Europe was the main target, they said.

“The operation targeted ISIS leaders with the objective of disrupting and degrading ISIS’s ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S., allies and partners throughout the region and beyond,” the military’s Central Command said in a statement on Sunday.

American officials declined to identify the ISIS leaders targeted, including the senior militant, pending DNA analysis of the bodies.

The joint operation in Anbar province came even as Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and Iraqi military commanders say they can keep the ISIS threat under control without U.S.-led assistance. Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that would wind down the mission of the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq. There are about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and 900 in neighboring Syria.

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