Six ISIS militants arrested in Iraq, Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS) announced on Monday that it had arrested six Islamic State (ISIS) militants in two Iraqi provinces and Sulaimani province in the Kurdistan Region.

Two wanted ISIS militants were arrested in Sulaimani province, in coordination with Asayish (security) forces, the ICTS said in a statement. 

Rudaw English reached out to Sulaimani's Director of Asayish, who was not available for comment.

One ISIS militant was also arrested in Baghdad’s Mansour district, with three arrested in Anbar, one of whom was in Fallujah – a city under ISIS control from 2014 to 2016.

Although territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017, the terror group continues to remain a threat across the country, particularly in areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil. Peshmerga forces were deployed to parts of the disputed territories last month because of an increased threat of attacks.

ISIS on Thursday claimed in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba that it had killed and injured 31 people in 14 attacks in Iraq in the previous week.

In February, Kurdish forces arrested a member of ISIS in Erbil and handed him over to Baghdad, the Kurdistan Region’s counter-terrorism directorate said.

Kurdistan Region’s Vice President Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa told Rudaw last month that ISIS remains “very strong” across Iraq, and could retake  territory if not for fear of the US-led coalition, which works with Kurdish and Iraqi forces to defeat the terror group.