The operation is designed to hunt down the remnants of the extremist militants in the vast desert area between the provinces of Salahudin, Nineveh and Anbar, said Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command. The security forces will advance westward to the Iraqi-Syrian border, the statement said. The Iraqi forces, backed by Hashd Shaabi forces, have been deployed in the desert area for months to secure the Iraqi side of the border and prevent infiltration of ISIS militants from Syria to Iraq.