By Anas al-Bar | 2025-08-01

The secret hideouts "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) remnants use to stage attacks are under assault as Iraqi and Peshmerga forces discover the caves and hollows where they are lurking and root them out.

The Iraqi army, assisted by Peshmerga forces, carried out a massive search operation July 13 in the Qara Chokh mountains in the north of the country.

Security officials said the objective was to monitor suspicious movements or hideouts where ISIS cells could be holed up, and prevent them from establishing a foothold.

Since then, Iraqi forces have continued to hunt down ISIS remnants, with the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) capturing 10 during raids in Kirkuk, Salaheddeine, Ninawa, Diyala, Anbar and Sulaymaniyah provinces.

Security forces searched and destroyed a number of the group's hideouts, including six safe houses in remote areas of the Anbar desert.

ISIS "continues to fail to protect the lives of its remnants," said Ministry of Defense media director Maj. Gen. Tahseen al-Khafaji.

"The mountains, the desert and any place are now within range of targeting, and the terrorists can no longer remain hidden from view for long," he said.

"Our forces, from all agencies, are constantly disrupting ISIS hotbeds, dismantling their networks, and preventing their elements from finding shelter."

"Their end is inevitable as a result of the efforts and security progress achieved in monitoring and controlling their movements and attacking their hideouts."

ISIS in turmoil

ISIS's influence in Iraq and Syria is fragmented, its cells are rapidly collapsing, and it is unable to regroup and reorganize, security experts told Al-Fassel.

Its fugitive elements and those who support them will inevitably face the consequences of the atrocities they have committed, they said.

As a result of the ongoing security campaigns, ISIS will no longer be able to regain its full strength and extend its influence on the ground, security expert Sarmed al-Bayati told Al-Fassel.

"The group's losses have become extremely heavy, with senior field commanders, who are some of the most hardened terrorists, killed in Iraq and Syria," he said.

Among them was the governor of ISIS's so-called "Wilayat al-Khair wal-Baraka," he added, noting that "this dangerous leader was killed, along with two of his companions," by an international coalition airstrike in Aleppo province.

The liquidation was the result of "intelligence information provided by the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service," a July 25 CTS statement said.

Al-Bayati stressed the need to cripple the group's movements and activity by pursuing and eliminating its remnants hiding in complex environments.