Metro Observer Daily

 ANKARA: Turkish warplanes, helicopters and drones hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq in an air and land operation that targeted facilities ranging from camps to ammunition stores, Turkey’s defense ministry said on Monday. The military action was part of a long-running Turkish campaign in Iraq and Syria against militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, both regarded as terrorist groups by Ankara. The operation focused on the Iraqi regions of Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan, the ministry said in a statement. Alongside the air operation, commandos and special forces also participated, both by land and air. “Our operation is continuing successfully as planned,” the state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. “The targets identified in the first phase have been captured.” No information on casualties was given. The action, called “Operation Claw Lock,” aimed to “prevent terror attacks”...

The next leader of ISIS is likely to be from a close circle of battle-hardened Iraqi extremists who emerged in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion, two Iraqi security officials and three independent analysts said. A member loyal to ISIS waves an ISIL flag in Raqqa June The group of potential successors to  Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi , who blew himself up during a US operation to capture him in Syria last week, includes one commander whom Washington and Baghdad declared killed last year, the Iraqi officials said. The death of Quraishi, 45, was another crushing blow to ISIS two years after the violent group lost longtime leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019. Quraishi, an Iraqi, never publicly addressed his fighters or followers, avoided electronic communications, and oversaw a move to fighting in small devolved units in response to intense pressure from Iraqi and US-led forces. But those following ISIS closely expect it to name a successor in coming weeks, as the grou...