By Jennifer Amarachi
A joint operation of American and Iraqi forces killed 15 Islamic State members in western Iraq, leaving seven US troops injured, US Central Command revealed.
The attack, which targeted Islamic State leaders, was carried out early Thursday morning, resulting “in the death of 15 ISIS operatives” with “no indication of civilian casualties,” according to CENTCOM on the social networking platform, X.
It stated that the IS members were “armed with numerous weapons, grenades, and explosive’suicide’ belts,” and that Iraqi forces were continuing “to further exploit the locations raided,” only mentioning that the operation took place in western Iraq.
According to a defense spokesman, two US soldiers were hurt in falls and five were hurt during the raid.
Both the wounded and a staff member hurt in a fall were sent to an emergency room for treatment. According to the official, all seven were in stable condition.
“ISIS still poses a threat to our country, our allies, and the surrounding area.
“US CENTCOM will keep up its vigorous pursuit of these terrorists in conjunction with our coalition and Iraqi allies” CENTCOM said.
The operation takes place during months of negotiations between Washington and Baghdad on the deployment of coalition forces fighting terrorism in Iraq.
Although Iraq has declared that it wants to remove all of its forces, but no timetable has been released to the public.
In the multinational coalition fighting the Islamic State organization, the United States is one of the countries with about 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria.
As a result of the turmoil surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza that erupted in early October, which has attracted armed organizations backed by Iran throughout the Middle East, coalition forces have been targeted numerous times with drone strikes and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria.
About 175 rocket and drone assaults against US troops in Iraq and Syria were reported by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a loose coalition of organizations supported by Iran, last winter.
US military have attacked these extremist groups in both nations with several retaliatory attacks. Additionally, the assault on Thursday occurs less than a week after US soldiers assassinated a key leader of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group in Syria.
