Operation al-Shabah

Operation al-Shabah
Part of the Syrian civil war and Iraqi insurgency
Location of Al Anbar and Nineveh Governorates within Iraq]]
Date 20 May – 14 July 2013 (1 month, 3 weeks and 3 days) Location Al Anbar and Nineveh Governorates, Iraq Result Several militant camps and weapons caches eliminated
Belligerents
Islamic State of Iraq Al-Nusra Front Free Iraqi Army	Iraqi Government Iraqi Army Iraqi Air Force Iraqi Police
Commanders and leaders
Abu Dua Abu Mohammad al-Julani	Nouri al-Maliki Babaker Shawkat B. Zebari Lieutenant-General Basim al-Tai
Strength
Unknown	8,000
Casualties and losses
43 killed, 57 captured	20 policemen killed 16 policemen injured 7 soldiers killed 10 soldiers injured
3 Syrian civilians killed 6 Iraqi civilians killed 4 Iraqi civilians kidnapped 6 Iraqi civilians injured

Islamic State of Iraq
Al-Nusra Front

Iraqi Government

Operation al-Shabah (English: Phantom) was launched in May 2013 by the Iraqi Army, with the stated aim of severing contact between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Syrian al-Nusra Front by clearing militants from the border area with Syria and Jordan.

Co-operation between the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq on a larger scale began in March 2013, as the groups staged an elaborate ambush near Akashat that left 51 Syrian and 9 Iraqi soldiers dead. The ISI officially claimed responsibility a week later.

In April 2013, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, released a recorded audio message on the Internet, in which he announced that Jabhat Al-Nusra was an extension of al-Qaeda in Iraq in Syria. Al-Baghdadi said that Abu Mohammad al-Golani, the leader of Jabhat Al-Nusra, had been dispatched by the group along with a group of men to Syria to meet with pre-existing cells in the country. Al-Baghdadi also said that the ISI had provided Jabhat Al-Nusra with the plans and strategy needed for the Syrian civil war and had been providing them funding on a monthly basis. Al-Baghdadi declared that the two groups were officially merging under the name "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham." The next day the leader of Al Nusra, Abu Golani, denied that any such merger exists, while reiterating that Al Qaeda and Al Nusra Front are still allies. Golani is quoted as saying "We inform you that neither the al-Nusra command nor its consultative council, nor its general manager were aware of this announcement. It reached them via the media and if the speech is authentic, we were not consulted."

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