The Joint Operations Command of Iraq on Sunday rejected the Pentagon’s recent estimate that there are approximately 14,000 to 18,000 Islamic State militants still in Iraq and Syria, stating the figure was “greatly exaggerated.”
The Pentagon Inspector General last Tuesday presented a report to Congress claiming the Islamic State was “growing again in power” in Syria and Iraq, with around 14,000 to 18,000 available militants.
“The Pentagon’s report on the presence of more than 14,000 Da’esh [ISIS] militants in the desert bordering areas of Iraq and Syria is greatly exaggerated,” a spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, Brigadier-General Yahya Rasool told Iraqi news agency Malouma.