New attack in Iraq kills 11 members of the Armed Forces    

Eleven Iraqi militiamen from the Hachd al-Chaabi coalition were killed and eight wounded after Daesh militants opened fire Saturday night in an ambush of the jihadist group in northern Iraq among militias supporting the government in its fight against it.  

The upsurge in attacks in Iraq by suspected Daesh militants since the beginning of the year reinforces past fears that the most bloodthirsty terrorist group is regrouping and may once again threaten the country's stability. 

"Eleven martyrs lost their lives in a retaliatory operation, including the commander of the third regiment of the 22nd brigade and another deputy of the sixth regiment" of the Popular Crowd, the pro-government militia group said in a statement, according to Efe. 

The attack, carried out at night on the island of al Aiz in Saladin province with small arms against the military, targeted civilians in the region - a modus operandi adopted by EI since its military defeat in Iraq in late 2017 - is on a much smaller scale than Thursday's double suicide bombing in the heart of Baghdad, which killed 32 civilians and raises the threat of a resurgence of jihadism in urban areas. 

"Terrorists have tried, with the use of suicide bombers, to take control of this important post and threaten the safety of citizens," the group added in a message on its Telegram channel. 

The Iraqi armed forces on Friday launched Operation "Revenge of the Martyrs" in response to this action, which left 32 people dead and more than 100 wounded in a street market in the centre of the capital and was claimed by Daesh. 

The first results of this operation were given this Saturday with the arrest of three members of this group, as explained to Efe the commander of the anti-terrorist forces, Saad al Bayati, in Baghdad and neighboring cities. 

On the other hand, the Army Information Office announced the death of seven members of the Islamic state in two bomb attacks carried out by the US-led international coalition in the north of the country, one in the mountainous region of Majmur and the other in the vicinity of Kirkuk. 

Although the Daesh Caliphate collapsed in 2018, local anti-terrorist operations continue throughout the region, and fighters of the surviving terrorist group are reverting to the guerrilla tactics that preceded their advances in Iraq and Syria since 2014. 

For some experts, Thursday's attack - claimed by the jihadist group's propaganda organ - could be an isolated case, as the clandestine SI cells hiding in the country's mountainous and desert areas have neither the organisation nor the equipment to carry out large-scale attacks in urban areas. This attack, unprecedented for more than three years in the capital, nevertheless highlighted the shortcomings of the Iraqi security apparatus. 

In fact, according to AFP, most of Daesh's attacks in recent months have taken place in the northern provinces of Salah Eddine and Kirkuk, where Kurdish and federal forces clash, creating a rift for jihadists. For example, seventeen people - mostly military - were killed in November in SI attacks north of Baghdad. 

This week's attacks come at a time when the US has reduced the number of its troops in Iraq to 2,500, while almost all the other members of the coalition against the Islamic state have left the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.