Iraq continues to focus its attention on terrorist financing sources

[size=52]Iraq continues to focus its attention on terrorist financing sources[/size]

[size=45]Translation/ Hamid Ahmed
[size=45]The operations that took place in recent weeks, which resulted in dozens of cases of arresting terrorists and destroying warehouses and stockpiles of weapons belonging to ISIS cells, still depend in their implementation on a great deal of intelligence effort, as well as coalition aircraft and its reconnaissance capabilities.[/size]
[size=45]The Security Media Cell of the Joint Operations Command stated in a statement on May 28 that the Iraqi forces, during the week between May 14 and May 21, arrested 81 people, including four people who infiltrated across the border from Syria, during which seven terrorists were killed.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, the spokesman for the Armed Forces Command, Major General Yahya Rasoul, stated in a statement on Twitter on May 15 that during the same week, coalition aircraft carried out nine air raids and destroyed five terrorist hideouts in the Hamrin Mountains.[/size]
[size=45]The Hamrin Mountains and the surrounding area were often considered a haven and hideout for terrorist groups for a long period of time, and the Counter-Terrorism Service, through its intelligence effort, provides the coalition aircraft with the coordinates of the targets of ISIS cells in the area to carry out its air strikes there.[/size]
[size=45]A spokesman for the International Coalition to Combat ISIS, Colonel Wayne Maroto, said that “the international coalition continues to provide intelligence information from reconnaissance and detection to our partners from the Iraqi armed forces and to empower them at the operational and strategic levels by providing them with logistical support and advising them. We also provide air support to them upon their request.” Colonel Marato added, "The task of the coalition now, however, is far from the tasks of the combat side on the ground. According to the applicable contexts and operational security considerations, the coalition does not talk and discuss matters related to the technical and tactical aspect of military operations and their details, nor the operations planned or that may be in progress. Regarding training efforts in the intelligence field, Al-Monitor correspondent Shelley Kettleson says that in an interview with the director of the Falcons cell, Abu Ali al-Basri, at the time in 2019, he told her that his men had received training and equipment from foreign intelligence agencies. A member of the team said at the time that he had been trained by US forces. The international coalition, in coordination with the Iraqi side, is also focusing on the ways and means of income and financing of ISIS. Colonel Maroto said, “The operations of the international coalition continue to undermine ISIS capabilities, including measures to counter ISIS financing methods. These activities resulted in a significant decline in ISIS’s ability to generate and obtain funds during its operations.” While ISIS began trying to adapt to the new situation after being expelled from the lands it controlled in Iraq and Syria, the international coalition also began to adopt new methods in confronting the organization and drying up its financial resources. "We are coordinating efforts through joint regional centers such as the Center for Combating the Financing of Terrorism in the Middle East and sanctions against members of a special committee in the United Nations Security Council that tracks ISIS and al-Qaeda members," said coalition spokesman Colonel Maroto. He added, "The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on seven people and one company who were part of a major money laundering network that often supplies money to ISIS. In December 2020, an Italian institution to combat the financing of terrorism was able to carry out a successful operation through which it prevented the exploitation of a sum of money for terrorist purposes.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the successful intelligence operations that took place in Iraq in this area, Colonel Maroto said that the coalition worked hand in hand with the Iraqi government to prevent ISIS from using the Iraqi financial system. "These efforts included identifying secret investments by ISIS and attempts to launder its financial revenues through official commercial investments," the colonel confirmed. He said that the Central Bank of Iraq is implementing its practical plan to strengthen the strength of Iraq's financial system. He said that the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service and the Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Directorate had made great efforts to arrest and prosecute members of the Al-Rawi network, a group that finances ISIS militants. On the other hand, the fight against corruption in Iraq is a companion to the fight against terrorism, and the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi continues its campaign to combat corruption in the country. Since taking office, he pledged to fight corruption as one of the priorities of the government's agenda.[/size]
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