ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi forces arrested a number of Islamic State (ISIS) suspects near the Kurdish capital, the US-led Coalition said on Sunday as the resurgence of the terror group threatens the security of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
The Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Directorate (CTD) detained three ISIS affiliates near Erbil in an operation conducted on Saturday night, the Coalition’s Special Operations Joint Task Force-Levant said in a tweet, without disclosing the exact location of the arrests.
“These operations ensure that Daesh is unable to harass the people of Iraq,” it added.
The Iraqi forces have not yet commented on the arrests.
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
The militants have taken shelter in a security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
The terror group has conducted 229 attacks in the disputed territories in the first 11 months of 2021, a Peshmerga official told Rudaw on Monday. The attacks killed 356 people while 480 others were injured.
Iraqi and Kurdish officials are in protracted talks to form two joint brigades in these areas. However, Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services (ICTS) Spokesperson Sabah al-Numan told Rudaw English on Monday that the brigades will be established within the first two months of the current year.
Multiple ISIS suspects have recently been arrested.
Iraqi forces arrested five members of the militant group in Kirkuk on December 23, five days after the Kurdish security forces detained a group of ISIS affiliates in Erbil.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 10 attacks in Iraq from December 23 to December 29, killing and injuring 36 people.
