Nineveh police acted on warrants for the five suspects, three of whom were allegedly members of ISIS’ judicial branch and the other two are accused of being members of the religious police known as Hisbah, Interior Ministry spokesperson Saad Maan announced.
ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017, but the group remains a serious security threat. The militants have returned to their underground insurgency roots, but with more sophistication as they seek to take advantage of divisions in Iraqi society.
Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Iraq spent the first three months of the year focused on “reconstitution and recruitment,” according to a US Defense Department report released on May 7.
There are daily reports of ISIS militants carrying out hit-and-run attacks on security personnel and infrastructure, and kidnapping and killing local officials and civilians in areas where massive security gaps exist – primarily in the desert regions of Anbar near the border with Syria and in the disputed areas where there are gaps between Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
“In addition, ISIS focused on exploiting weaknesses and failure of the Iraqi government, which has struggled to rebuild areas liberated from ISIS and provide basic services and economic opportunities to millions of Iraqis, particularly in Sunni areas where ISIS recruiting efforts are strongest,” the Defense report stated.
In the disputed area around Makhmour, ISIS militants are essentially operating freely, even in daylight hours, and are making efforts to forge friendly ties with Sunni locals. Residents in Mosul, who say they receive minimal support from Baghdad for reconstruction of the war-ravaged city, believe government corruption has done more damage to their city than ISIS.
Iraqi and Peshmerga forces, backed by the global coalition against ISIS, have conducted scores of clearing operations against ISIS. This week, a mishmash of Iraqi forces conducted an operation in the desert of Anbar.
Iraqi army units, border forces, tribal forces, security agencies, and Anbar police, backed by the coalition and air support carried out the operation that ranged from south of Rutba towards the border with Saudi Arabia, Col. Musa Mohammed, commander in the Euphrates area, told Arab24.
“The operation resulted in destroying three vehicles and three tents that were left by ISIS,” said Mohammed, describing it as an “excellent pre-emptive operation.”
The US says that clearance operations like this have seen only limited success. They have only “marginally diminished ISIS’s ability to operate, mainly by restricting its freedom of movement,” read the Defense report.
A major challenge for Iraqi forces comes from failures in its intelligence structures. Lack of training and financial investment, poor ability to process and exploit information, and then failures to share relevant information within the wider security apparatus are hampering intelligence efforts, the Defense report stated.
A Peshmerga commander in a disputed area says that Iraqi forces need a stronger, permanent presence on the ground if it really wants to counter ISIS.
"The solution is that the Iraqi army should be returning to this area, not just carry out an operation and leave,” Sirwan Barzani, commander on the Peshmerga’s Makhmour front, told Rudaw on May 1.
The Peshmerga have a base on the top of Mount Qarachogh and Barzani said they could clear ISIS from the mountain within days, “but there is no guarantee that they will not come back" in the absence of armed forces.
Iraq's armed forces melted away in the face of ISIS' advance in 2014. International allies of the global coalition to defeat ISIS have worked to rebuild Iraq's security forces with extensive training and equipping.
The coalition has now focused its training efforts on filling the gaps that exist in their ability to counter ISIS, the Defense report stated. The coalition "will now focus on counter-ISIS capability shortfalls that can be addressed by September 2020, ... other capabilities that cannot be addressed in that timeframe will require longer-term international assistance."
An estimated 14,000 to 30,000 ISIS militants remain dispersed across Iraq and Syria, according to the US Defense Department.
