Islamic State uses hit-and-run tactics in Iraq
Islamic State cells continue to target Sunni areas while armed groups thought to be close to Iran step up attacks on facilities hosting international coalition forces.
Islamic State (IS) remnants continue to make their presence known in mostly Sunni-majority areas in Iraq, including an attack earlier this month on fishermen near the Haditha Dam, not far from the town of the same name that was under siege for over a year during the battle against IS.
Iraq officially declared victory against IS in December 2017, after the last urban center in the country — Rawa in western Anbar — had been retaken from the international terrorist group the previous month.
Haditha, known for its Jughayfa tribe and fierce tribal fighters as well as a massacre of civilians by US Marines in November 2005, and an attempted coverup later subjected to a lengthy investigation, never fell to the international terrorist group.
A fighter from a local Sunni Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU) in the region who did not want to be named told Al-Monitor July 8, "Four fishermen had been killed in the attack by three IS in a pickup truck."
