ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces on Saturday announced the arrest of two “dangerous” leaders of the Islamic State (ISIS) allegedly responsible for committing numerous crimes in Fallujah.
Intelligence forces arrested “two of the most dangerous ISIS leaders” in an operation conducted outside Iraq, the military’s Security Media Cell said in a statement without specifying where.
The two were identified as Issam Abd Ali Saeedan, known as Abu Zaid, and Bashir Abd Ali Saeedan known by the alias of Abu Ahmed Etisalat. They were “involved in the most heinous terrorist crimes in Iraq,” according to the statement.
Issam Abd Ali Saeedan was reportedly responsible for documenting “crimes” committed against Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah, while Bashir Abd Ali Saeedan was in charge of media posts covering attacks in the city after 2014.
Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIS in January 2014. The terror group went on to seize swathes of land across central and northern Iraq. ISIS was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when Kurdish and Iraqi fighters supported by the United States-led coalition drove them out of the land they seized years prior in a brazen offensive.
Despite its territorial defeat, Iraqi security forces continue their pursuit of ISIS remnants, particularly in the disputed areas stretching across the provinces of Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul-Amir al-Shammari on Saturday said the group is now largely confined. “ISIS is under continuous confinement. They seize places of difficult geography, and we continue to chase them and kill them,” he said.
