Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for killing Iraqi general outside Baghdad
The so-called Islamic State claimed on late Saturday that its fighters had carried out the assassination of a top Iraqi army general on the previous day in the town of Tarmiyah, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi military communications center known as the Iraqi Media Cell announced on Friday evening that Brigadier General Ali Hameed Ghaidan, the commander of the army’s 59th Brigade, was killed along with three other soldiers in an attack on Tarmiyah’s Ibn Sina Street.
On the following day, the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency announced that its militants had been responsible for the “ambush,” in which “various weapons” had been used.
The incident took place as Iraqi army forces continue offensives against remnants of the extremist organization that, since its territorial defeat in late 2017, have continued to stage regular attacks in several areas across Iraq, prominent among them territories disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Soon after Ghaidan’s death was made public, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that the leader, who also holds the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces, ordered that security and intelligence officials “urgently” investigate the killings.
On Wednesday, the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC)–established in 2017 and consisting of the United States and the six Gulf Arab states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)–designated six entities or individuals as targets for their association with the Islamic State.
Five months ago, Iraqi security forces began launching military operations in the face of mounting Islamic State attacks. In early February, military officials announced they had launched one among a series of large-scale military operations dubbed “Iraq’s Heroes,” the first in western Iraq to hunt down the group’s fighters along Iraq’s western borders with Syria and Jordan.
Source: Kurdistan 24
