ISIS members arrested in Baghdad and Kirkuk

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Counter Terrorism Services (ICTS) on Tuesday captured an Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist in an operation conducted in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib district, a military spokesperson announced.

The arrest was one of several raids against ISIS forces across Iraq on the same day, Yehia Rasool announced, with security forces finding an ISIS den in Kirkuk’s Wadi al-Shai area, and a conducting search operation for militants in Diyala province. 

Coalition spokesperson Colonel Wayne Marotto commended the Iraqi Security Forces in a tweet on Wednesday, saying that their commitment to eradicating ISIS “helps bring stability to the region.”

Iraqi security media cell also announced early Wednesday morning on Telegram that Iraqi intelligence were able to arrest a terrorist in Kirkuk’s Daquq district, after the terrorist had been injured in a clash with security forces the day before and had managed to escape.

Though ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017, remnants of the group continue to conduct attacks in the country.

On Thursday, ISIS claimed in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba that it had killed and injured at least 36 people in 21 attacks in Iraq from March 4 to March 10.

Rasool in February warned of the ongoing threat of ISIS, especially in security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.

"An important point is there are kilometers where there is no security force from neither Iraq nor the Kurdistan Region, and it has become a hotspot for ISIS,” he said in a roundtable discussion held by Rudaw research center on February 19.

The Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs secretary general warned in February that ISIS is still a major threat.

“We have said this many times. ISIS is still a threat to the region because of the terrorist attacks they conduct,”  Jabar Yawar told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on February 9. “What ISIS lost in 2017 when then-Prime Minister of Iraq Haidar al-Abadi announced their defeat, was only their alleged caliphate, but ISIS is still out there conducting attacks.”