BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:30 A.M.) – Iraq has denied a Pentagon report that alleged approximately 14,000 Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh) fighters were present along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

“The figure announced by the Pentagon is extremely exaggerated,” the spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, said in a press statement, as quoted by Iraqi News.

Rasool added that the Iraqi military had recently launched their third phase of “Operation Will of Victory”, which is meant to rid Iraq of the last Islamic State sleeper cells.

The third phase began last week and is currently being conducted inside the Diyala Governorate.