Iraqi authorities announce the death of senior ISIS member

Shafaq News/ A senior member of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been killed in a joint security operation in western Iraq, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said on Thursday.

The target, Samir Khedr Sheehan al-Namrawi, was responsible for transporting fighters, weapons, equipment, and explosives between Iraq and Syria. 

The operation, according to JOC, followed "accurate intelligence work and intensive surveillance" in cooperation with various security bodies.

Islamic State controlled one-third of Iraq and Syria at its peak in 2014. Though it was beaten back in both countries, Islamic State militants continue to wage insurgent attacks.

Islamic State is estimated to have 5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters spread between Syria and Iraq, roughly half of them fighters, the U.N. report said.

Northwestern Syria is controlled by a jihadist group that fought Islamic State earlier in Syria's 12-year-long war.

Late last year, Islamic State announced it had appointed a previously unknown figure - Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi - as its leader after the previous leader was killed.

Islamic State once ran a third of Syria and Iraq according to its ultra-hardline interpretation of Islam, committing atrocities including the slaughter of thousands of Yazidis, and Islamic State militants carried out numerous attacks overseas including a rampage that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.

A United Nations mission set up to help Iraq investigate alleged Islamic State genocide and war crimes will shut down prematurely before it can finish its probes, following a souring relationship with the Iraqi government.

The removal of the UN mission set up in 2017 comes nearly a decade after the extremist group rampaged across Syria and Iraq and at a time when many of ISIS victims still live displaced in camps and long for justice.