PMF Says Operation in Western Nineveh Killed Three Suspected ISIS Members

# PMF Says Operation in Western Nineveh Killed Three Suspected ISIS Members

*Event date: June 2, 2026*

By NeoTechNews Desk

The Popular Mobilization Forces in Nineveh said on June 2, 2026, that three suspected Islamic State members were killed during an operation in Iraq’s western desert, an area that has long remained vulnerable to militant movement despite the group’s territorial defeat years earlier.

The account, reported by Shafaq News, said the operation took place in al-Baaj district, a desert region in Nineveh province west of Mosul. According to the PMF Operations Command, the mission was carried out as a “precise and specialized security mission,” language that suggested a targeted action rather than a broad sweep or a conventional battlefield engagement.

The verified details in the evidence packet are limited, and they do not identify the suspects by name, specify the exact sequence of the operation, or indicate whether Iraqi forces suffered casualties. But the report does place the incident within a wider security effort across several provinces. Shafaq said the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service had launched a large-scale search operation covering multiple regions believed to contain remaining ISIS cells or hideouts.

Those search areas extended far beyond Nineveh. The evidence packet lists western Nineveh’s desert, Baiji in Saladin province, the Najaf desert, the Nukhaib desert in Anbar, Qazaniya north of Badra in Wasit, Mandali in Diyala, Al-Fuhoud in Dhi Qar and the Muthanna desert. That spread underscores a persistent challenge for Iraqi security forces: ISIS no longer controls major cities or broad territory, but small cells can still use remote terrain and provincial gaps to regroup, move supplies or plan attacks.

Al-Baaj has repeatedly appeared in Iraqi security reporting because of its geography. The district sits in sparsely populated terrain where desert routes can complicate surveillance and pursuit. In that context, a targeted mission there carries significance beyond the death toll alone. It suggests that Iraqi forces and aligned formations continue to prioritize intelligence-led operations in zones where militants may try to survive below the threshold of major national attention.

The role of the PMF is also notable. The umbrella force, formed during Iraq’s war against ISIS, remains a prominent part of the country’s security architecture. When it announces a successful mission, the statement serves both an operational and political purpose: it communicates continued pressure on insurgent remnants while reinforcing the PMF’s position as an active security actor in contested areas.

Because the available evidence comes from a single report summarizing an official statement, caution is warranted about any broader claims regarding the scope of the threat or the long-term impact of the mission. What can be stated on the event date is narrower but still important: Iraqi security forces were conducting coordinated searches across several provinces, and the PMF said one such mission in al-Baaj ended with the killing of three suspected ISIS members.

That combination of localized raids and expansive search activity indicates that, in June 2026, Iraq’s campaign against ISIS remnants remained active, dispersed and heavily shaped by the country’s difficult desert geography.