JOC announces rise in death toll of Operation Lions’ Leap in Anbar Desert

The Joint Operations Command announced today, Tuesday, the rise in the death toll of the Lions' Leap operation in the Anbar desert. The command stated, according to a statement by the Security Media Cell, that "based on the directives and follow-up of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and in continuation of the Lions' Leap operation in the Anbar desert, and in order to control the sector completely and to punish the remnants of the failed ISIS detachments, the Chief of Staff of the Army and Deputy Commander of Joint Operations supervised at 4:00 am today from within the Operations Center and the Targeting Cell in the Joint Operations Command, in the presence of the Director of Military Intelligence and the Staff, the stages and implementation of the landing of the airborne forces carried out by the heroes in the Special Forces." It indicated that "the operation came in coordination with detachments from the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and with the support of the brave men in the Air Force, the Army Aviation and the holding units, in Wadi (Al-Ghadaf) on an important den that was used by the leaders of the terrorist ISIS elements." It explained that "two bodies of terrorists were found, along with equipment and weapons, bringing the total number of those killed in the qualitative operation of the Lions' Leap to 16 terrorists, including first-rank leaders of the terrorist ISIS gangs." It pointed out that "three different pickup trucks were spotted in different areas used by ISIS detachments, and were immediately treated and burned by the heroes of the army aviation," noting that "our security forces are continuing with the preemptive security work, destroying the terrorists' hideouts and besieging their dens to exact just retribution from these defeated elements." Source: National Iraqi News Agency