[Rudaw] At least two fighters from the Hashd al-Shaabi militias were killed in an ISIS ambush on Wednesday. "Hashd al-Shaabi forces were attacked by ISIS fighters Wednesday evening near djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
city," Ali Husseini, spokesperson for the paramilitary’s northern branch, told Rudaw.
Two of their ranks were killed and an unspecified number of others were maimed, he added.
The injured are being treated in hospital.
Between 14,000 and 18,000 ISIS holy warriors are estimated to still be operating in Iraq and Syria, despite military victories on both sides of the border. Iraq declared the group defeated in 2017. In Syria, the holy warriors are corralled into a tent camp near Baghouz.
In Iraq, they frequently carry out attacks against security forces and civilians, especially in security vacuums between Kurdish and Iraq forces.
The ambush on Wednesday happened in a mountainous area between Makhmour and Dubiz. The terrain makes it "even more difficult to reclaim the region from ISIS," said Husseini.
The Hashd have dispatched reinforcements to secure the area, he added.
"We do not know the exact number of the ISIS holy warriors who had ambushed our force," he said.
Sirwan Barzani, commander on the Peshmerga’s Gwer-Makhmour front, told Rudaw they are ready to help rush the maimed to hospitals in Erbil.