ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have launched a sweep up operation on the Kirkuk-Khurmatu-Kifri road in a bid to capture ISIS and ‘White Flags’ militants in the unstable area.

“The Iraqi forces have started an operation on the Kirkuk-Khurmatu-Kifri road to sweep up the area,” Mala Karim Shukr, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)’s Hamrin office, told Rudaw.

One member of the ISF was killed and seven more were injured in a bombing in the village of Palkana, Shukr said.

“The operation is a sweep up and it is for capturing ISIS and White Flags members in Hamrin,” Shukr added.

The White Flags is thought to be one of a number of groups to emerge from the fragments of ISIS following its ejection from Iraq’s major urban centers. 

Although the Iraqi government declared the defeat of ISIS in December 2017, there have been sporadic military confrontations between ISIS remnants and ISF including the Kurdish Peshmerga — around Makhmour and in the Hamrin mountains in Saladin province.

The operation comes as the Iraqi Army and the federal government bolster efforts to secure the dangerous stretch of road, which sees frequent ISIS kidnappings and assassinations.

Last week ISIS executed six members of the security forces it had kidnapped in the area, prompting the Iraqi government to respond by executing 12 convicted terrorists.

“With the supervision and coordination of the Joint Operations Command, the army, federal police, rapid response [forces], Hashd al-Shaabi, the Diyala and Saladin police sectors, and in coordination with the Peshmerga forces, with the backing of air forces, the army’s air force and the Coalition forces, initiate a wide operation to cleanse the area located to the east of Kirkuk-Diyala road,” Amid Yahya Rasul, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“The federal police, within the ‘Avenging the Martyrs’ operation to cleanse the areas located to the east of the Diyala road, which started this morning, managed to kill a terrorist, destroy a VBIED [vehicle-borne improvised explosive device], find a 120 mm mortar, destroy nine foxholes, detain nine suspects, a medical center and another for training Daesh elements.”

“Rapid Forces Division, within the ‘Avenging the Martyrs’ operation for cleansing the areas located to the east of the Diyala road and Salahaddin, managed to accomplish its goals and reach Peshmerga lines, find eight explosive vests, two bazookas, destroys eight foxholes, demine 21 planted bombs, and cleanse the Agha Mishit, Shirawa, Palakana, al-Nahran and Pilka villages,” the statement added.

A high ranking Hashd al-Shaabi official was killed on the Tuz Khurmatu-Kirkuk road on Monday, the group’s media announced in a statement. 

Maj. Gen. Ali Khalifa was assistant commander of East Tigris Operations for the Shiite militia forces. No details about how he died were immediately released.