ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Five alleged prominent Islamic State (ISIS) members across numerous Iraqi provinces were arrested on Saturday and multiple stockpiles of equipment were seized, state media reported, citing a statement from Iraq's Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency. The agency said that operations "to follow up on terrorist elements to punish them and dry up their sources" continue in the country, amid an ongoing operation to clear Iraq's western provinces of ISIS remnants. Two of the arrestees worked in the province of Kirkuk, while another two operated in Nineveh, with the fifth being arrested in Baghdad. A cache of equipment belonging to the terror group was also seized in Tarmiyah district, located about 50 kilometers north of the capital. The agency reported that the stockpile "included Austrian projectiles, 486 explosive-laden lighters, and 2,000 bullets buried underground in plastic barrels." The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) said on Saturday that they had thwarted an ISIS attack in the town of Jurf al-Nasr in Babil province. The aforementioned developments come on the same day that Iraq launched the second phase of an operation, dubbed Solid Will, to eliminate ISIS from its west. Around 12,000 PMF fighters alongside several other forces have partaken in the operation. ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces. In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 28 attacks in Iraq from April 14 to April 20, killing and injuring 51 people.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
