Governor reveals plan to form a Sunni Coalition

Governor of northern Iraqi province of Nineveh Nofal Hammadi was removed from office Wednesday by the provincial council. "Nineveh provincial council made a decision to remove the governor in absentia," a Nineveh councilman Hassan al-Sabawi said.

According to Sabawi, Hammadi was voted out of office over "corruption and damage of public property." Nineveh's chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, which was liberated from the Daesh terrorist group in June.

He added that both Saudi and UAE support meetings currently held in Turkish city of Ankara to form a new Sunni coalition, while UN special envoy to Iraq, Jan Kubic, said Wednesday that elections in Iraq can not be held, the situation is volatile and Sunnis are displaced.

Iraqi forces announced the launch of a major operation on Thursday to flush remaining ISIS militants out of the western desert bordering Syria. "The Iraqi army, the federal police and units from the Popular Mobilization Forces this morning began clearing the Al-Jazeera region straddling Salaheddin, Nineveh and Anbar provinces," the head of Joint Operations Command, General Abdelamir Yarallah, said in a statement.

"The objective behind the operation is to prevent remaining ISIS groups from melting into the desert region and using it as a base for future attacks," said army colonel Salah Kareem. The arid, sparsely populated wastelands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the last refuge of the militants in Iraq after troops ousted them from both valleys and all urban areas.

The region's dry valleys, the oases and steppes make up around four percent of national territory, Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert on ISIS, told AFP last week. Iraqi army commanders say the military campaign will continue until all the frontier with Syria is secured to prevent ISIS from launching cross border attacks.

"We will completely secure the desert from all terrorist groups of ISIS and declare Iraq clean of those germs," said army Brigadier General Shakir Kadhim. "After the operation has ended, we will announce the final defeat of ISIS in Iraq," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday.

Over the border in neighboring Syria, pro-government forces and US-backed Kurdish-led forces are conducting similar operations to clear ISIS militants from the countryside north of the Euphrates valley after ousting them from all urban areas.

In the same context, Two Islamic State members were killed as they attempted infiltration toward security checkpoints, north of Tikrit, according to the pro-government paramilitary troops. “The 99th brigade killed two IS members, who attempted sneaking toward troops in Jazeerat al-Siniyah region,” the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said.

“There is shootout between the two sides,” it added. Iraqi Interior Minister said that the military presence of IS is over after the liberation of Rawa in western Anbar.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

The war against IS has displaced nearly five million people, with tens of thousands of civilians and militants killed since the launch of the offensives to recapture occupied cities. The last IS bastion of Rawa in western Anbar was freed on Friday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said during his weekly press briefing on Tuesday that his country has defeated Islamic State over the military level, but will declare final victory after desert areas are purged of militants.

Operations were launched, late October, to liberate Qaim and Rawa towns. Other operations were launched in September to free both Hawija town in Kirkuk and eastern Shirqat town in Salahuddin. All have been held by the extremist group since 2014, when it occupied one third of Iraq to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “Caliphate”.