The Iraqi Army has put the number of members of the Islamic State jihadist group killed in operations carried out this year at more than 200, while stressing that the number of jihadists present in the country «is low».
«More than 200 terrorists have been killed in airstrikes, most of them being senior members of the Islamic State,» said Joint Operations Command spokesman Tahsin al-Jafaji, speaking to the Kurdish television channel Rudaw.
He specified that the members of the jihadist group who are still operational «are Iraqis», without giving further details. The Islamic State has perpetrated several attacks in recent weeks which have left more than a dozen military personnel dead, in an upsurge of its activities.
On the other hand, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazlum Abdi, warned on Monday that the jihadist group is undertaking «dangerous preparations» in the Syrian city of Raqqa (north), after the death of six members of the SDF in an attack on Monday.
«The terrorists’ movements coincide with Turkey’s threats about attacking the security and stability of the region,» he said via his account on the social network Twitter. «Information received from Raqqa points to dangerous preparations by Islamic State. We must not tolerate it,» he concluded.
The SDF temporarily suspended joint operations with the U.S. against Islamic State because of Turkish shelling against its positions. Turkey launched operation ‘Sword Claw’ on November 21, a bombing campaign against Kurdish groups following the November 13 bombing in the Turkish city of Istanbul, which left six dead and more than 80 wounded.
The Turkish government has blamed the Istanbul bombing on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and said that the main suspect had received orders from the Kurdish-Syrian militia People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main element of the SDF – although both the PKK and the SDF have disassociated themselves from the attack.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
