ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sulaimani Asayish announced on Tuesday that 22 suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members have been arrested in a number of towns across the province in the past three months.
One of those detained is Abu Ali Jumaili, the ISIS Wali (governor) of Fallujah who is said to have entered the Kurdistan Region using a fake identity card.
The suspects were arrested after “obtaining intelligence and collecting evidence on a Daesh [ISIS] terrorist group who were reorganizing in a number of towns,” the Asayish said in a statement seen by Rudaw English.
The suspects “intended to carry out a number of terrorist attacks,” it added, with raids carried out in Garmiyan, west Sulaimani, Sharazur and Raparin in February, March and April.
One of the detainees, found in Peshdar district on the Iranian border in February, was responsible for erecting an ISIS flag in Said Sadiq, the security forces said.
Ten people were arrested in February in connection with the incident, when a bomb was found under the flag placed in the district east of Sulaimani city.
Jumaili was detained in Chamchamal a month later, on March 25. Asayish said he was previously a member of Al Qaeda but pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014, becoming the deputy Wali for northern Iraq and later the Wali of Fallujah.
ISIS was territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, but remnants of the group continue to wage attacks across the country, especially in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.
Suspected members of the terror group have recently been found in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil.
