ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi security forces have arrested the alleged perpetrator behind a Baghdad explosion which killed two civilians and founded five others, according to a spokesperson for the Iraqi commander-in-chief.
An individual suspected to be behind the Wednesday IED bombing was arrested on Thursday, Yehia Rasool said in an official statement released on Sunday.
“The heroes of the National Security Service through field, technical and intelligence efforts were able to identify the perpetrator of this terrorist operation and to obtain accurate information about him and determine his location,” the statement read.
“After obtaining the legal arrest warrants, he was arrested within 24 hours of committing the crime,” the statement added.
The Islamic State group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
At the height of its power between 2014 and 2016, ISIS controlled an area roughly the size of Great Britain, spread across both Iraq and Syria.
Although Baghdad announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to their earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations, particularly in the disputed territories.
ISIS insurgent activities have increased in recent weeks.
The extremist group killed the commander of the 59th Brigade of the Iraqi army, Brigadier General Ali Hameed Ghaydan, after militants attacked his convoy in the Ibn Sena region in al-Tarmia district, north of the capital city of Baghdad.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for the killing of General Brigadier Ahmed al-Lami, commander of 7th division of the 29th brigade of the Iraqi army in an ambush in Anbar on Wednesday.
On May 15, two soldiers were killed and four wounded when a convoy hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Baghdad province. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the blast.
May was an especially deadly month. Ten Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al Shaabi in Arabic) fighters were killed in a five-pronged assault in Salahaddin on May 2. On the same day, militants killed three federal police officers and wounded two others in an attack on Zaghniya police station in Diyala province.
ISIS claimed in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba on Thursday that its militants had carried out 34 attacks in Iraq between July 23 and 29 alone – mainly in Anbar province.
