Army soldiers pictured near al Asad Air Base in Iraq in 2022. U.S. forces on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, took part in an Iraqi-led raid on ISIS fighters in the Anbar province. The operation assessment is ongoing, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, but no U.S. personnel were injured. (Julio Hernandez/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces on Thursday participated in a second Iraqi-led raid this week on ISIS fighters as two American service members injured in the earlier attack are moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
The latest raid against Islamic State fighters took place in the Anbar province of Iraq. The operation assessment is ongoing, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday, but no U.S. personnel were injured.
“We continue to see ISIS operate within Iraq and Syria, and their footprint has spread to other parts of the world,” she said. “I don’t think that demonstrates necessarily their resurgence in Iraq or Syria, but it represents that they still remain a threat, which is why we do these partner raids with the Iraqi Security Forces.”
An operation conducted Tuesday by U.S. and Iraqi forces included strikes and raids on multiple ISIS locations in central Iraq, targeting several senior ISIS leaders. The two U.S. service members were wounded by an explosion while assisting Iraqi forces, Singh said. A third service member is also being assessed for a traumatic brain injury.
“All are in stable condition and receiving the care that they need,” she added.
U.S. officials in September announced American troops will remain in Iraq as the two countries agree to a transition of the American-led mission to defeat ISIS.
For 10 years, U.S.-led coalition forces have battled ISIS since the terrorist group launched a blitzkrieg across eastern Syria and into Iraq, capturing massive swaths of both countries, including about one-third of Iraq. Then-President Barack Obama amassed the coalition to launch an air campaign against ISIS. Later that year, the U.S. began sending troops back into Iraq to train and advise Iraqi military forces to fight off the group. That campaign has continued, despite ISIS fighters having lost almost all their land in Iraq by 2017.
There are about 900 U.S. military personnel still operating in Syria where they support local Kurdish forces in preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State. There are about 2,500 U.S. military personnel in Iraq also participating in a counter-ISIS mission.
