Shafaq News/ On Friday, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) launched a security operation in Hawi al-Azim, north of Diyala Governorate.

The PMF commander, Bashir Al-Anbaki, revealed that a joint force of the PMF's 23rd  and 62nd Brigades operated to "secure" the area and "search" for terrorist groups.

Al-Azim District is located north of Baqubah in Diyala, where ISIS members killed 11 Iraqi soldiers during an armed attack at a military base last January.

The attack marks one of the deadliest against the Iraqi military in recent months.