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BAGHDAD: “We’ve been attacked on an almost daily basis since we were deployed here,” Mohammed Al-Shimary, an artillery battalion commander deployed along the Iraqi-Syrian border in western Mosul, told Arab News.
“Our artillery is pointed toward Syrian territory because the attacks have been launched from the Syrian side,” he said.
In the latest attack, militants in pickup trucks equipped with machine-guns opened fire at the battalion in an attempt to enter Iraq.
Several militants were killed, a vehicle was destroyed and another was damaged, Al-Shimary said. The surviving militants fled. A similar attack took place in the same area a week earlier.
The militants “are desperate to cross into Iraq. There’s no direct fighting, but hit-and-run attacks,” Al-Shimary said.
“In such attacks, using artillery is much faster than waiting for the air force, so we’ve deployed our artillery along the border for more than 100 km.”
The Iraqi-Syrian border is more than 600 km long. The vast desert on both sides is dotted by long valleys and large caves.
Earlier this month, Iraq declared the full liberation of its territories from Daesh, which at one point controlled almost a third of the country.
But Iraqi military commanders and officials say hundreds of Daesh fighters have mysteriously disappeared without fighting, especially in areas that were formerly the command and control headquarters of the terror group, raising questions about where and when they will resurface.
“The information we got from Daesh leaders who we captured in Mosul suggests that there were at least 700 militants who fled the combat zones,” Falih Al-Khaza’ali, commander of the Brigades of the Martyrs, one of the Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units, told Arab News.
“They had three options: Travel to Syria or Turkey; disguise themselves, or turn into sleeper cells,” he said.
“Those who fled took refuge in many places that haven’t been cleared yet. They are mainly in the western desert of Anbar, Hawija and the southern areas of Kirkuk with some areas extending along the Hemrin Mountains.”
Ahmed Assadi, the commander of Jund Al-Emam who is the former spokesman of the PMU, along with several intelligence and military officers, agreed with Khaza’ali.
The US-led coalition said most of the 40,000 foreigners and locals who joined Daesh in Iraq have been killed, with fewer than 1,000 fighters remaining in the desert area along the border with Syria. But Iraqi officers and security officials dispute these figures.
“These numbers aren’t even close to the numbers from our intelligence sources,” a senior officer told Arab News on condition of anonymity. “It was funny. They were just gone with the wind in some areas,” he said sarcastically.
Fadhil Abu Raghaif, an Iraqi expert on radical armed groups, told Arab News: “No more than 25 percent of the fighters were killed.”
“The problem is that most of the militants were neither locally or internationally registered so it was very easy for them to evaporate,” he said. “Some of them (the foreigners) have returned to their countries; some (the locals) went back to their previous lives. Most of them returned to the desert.”
Iraqi security, military and local officials who were contacted by Arab News said that the militants who fled took refuge in the border towns of Zanghorah, Turabail, Ruttba, Qaem and Annah in western Anbar; some in villages between Salahudeen and Diyala provinces while the rest returned to Horran, Hussienat, Ghadhaf and Um Al-Shababiek valleys in the desert of Anbar.
Anbar’s local officials told Arab News that there were large concealed and fully equipped camps which were set up by Al-Qaeda in 2004 and 2005 inside the deep long valleys of the western desert of Anbar. The biggest camp is in Horan, officials said. Daesh is Al-Qaeda’s offshoot; most of its prominent leaders were first Al-Qaeda leaders. Daesh has inherited all the tactics, weapons and headquarters of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria.
Iraq on Dec. 9 announced the liberation of western Anbar province. But “Daesh’s presence in the desert (of Anbar) isn’t a secret,” Ibrahim Al-Awssaj, the mayor of Anbar’s capital Ramadi, told Arab News.
“Its military presence in the big cities and towns has ended, but it’s difficult to terminate Daesh as an ideology … specifically in this part of the country (Anbar),” he said.
“Until now, the Iraqi government has focused on stopping car bombs, but it has to focus on stopping the ideological bomb,” he added. “Daesh could come back at any minute.”