Officials say 7,000 ISIS affiliates remain in Iraq

High-ranking Iraqi security officials say up to 7,000 Daesh (ISIS) affiliates remain in Iraq after the fall of Mosul, where the group’s leader declared the self-styled caliphate three years ago.

Three intelligence and defense officials also told the Associated Press there are an estimated 4,000 militants and 3,000 supporters who were employed by the group and received salaries.

In Syria, there are up to another 7,000 Daesh militants and 5,000 supporters, they say.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

On July 10, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the liberation of Mosul, after nine months of highly destructive warfare. Daesh swept into Mosul in summer 2014 when it conquered much of northern and western Iraq. The extremists declared a caliphate and governed according to a harsh and violent interpretation of Islamic law. The militants rounded up their opponents and killed them en masse, often documenting the massacres with video and photos.

Two days after the declaration of Mosul’s liberation, Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, cautioned that the battle in Iraq was not over. He said he believed Iraqi troops still need time to oust remaining Daesh fighters from Mosul. Once that is done, he said, they will probably take a break to regroup before launching their fight against Daesh in Tal Afar and other remaining insurgent strongholds in western Iraq.

Daesh still controls territories in parts of Nineva and Anbar governorates, in Hawijah in Kirkuk governorate and in pockets elsewhere.

Last week, Nick Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, warned that the world still faces threats from Daesh militants despite their territorial losses. He said Daesh controls less territory, but officials still worry that a small number of skilled fighters could move out of the region and launch attacks in the West or in their homelands.

Amid reports that Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed, Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press that he is still alive.

“We will be reviving [Daesh] if we killed Baghdadi now,” a top official said, adding that the strategy is to get rid of possible successors first. “We want to cripple the group in order to end it. We don’t want to give them a window for a comeback.”

There have been conflicting reports of Baghdadi’s death, including a claim by Moscow in late May that there was a “high probability” he was killed in a Russian airstrike on the southern outskirts of Raqqa.

Townsend earlier said he doesn’t know if he is dead or alive.