ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) on Saturday announced the arrest of an Islamic State (ISIS) official near Makhmour district, southwest of the capital Erbil.
Zidan Khalifa Ahmad Matar (also known as Abu Laila) was emir of the group’s Saad Bin Abi Waqqas sector of the so-called Tigris state and was operating near Mount Qarachogh in Makhmour, the security council said in a video released on Facebook.
He was arrested on September 6.
Khalifa joined ISIS in 2014. He was responsible for a mortar detachment and participated in battles against Peshmerga forces in Makhmour, according to the KRSC. In 2017 he was put in charge of an ISIS checkpoint near Mount Qarachogh with instructions to carry out assassinations and abduct civilians for ransom.
Mount Qarachogh is located within an area where there is a security vacuum between the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi federal forces. ISIS has taken advantage of the situation to harass local residents and carry out attacks. The federal budget passed earlier this year includes funds for joint Peshmerga-Iraq brigades to combat ISIS in these areas.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
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