President Barzani warns of ISIS threat after series of deadly attacks

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Monday warned of the recent series of Islamic State (ISIS) attacks that killed at least seven and injured over a dozen people across Iraq, saying it rings “alarms of a serious threat” of the terror group.

At least nine people were killed in separate Islamic State attacks in four Iraqi provinces overnight, according to local officials, marking the latest in a spate of offenses by the terror group.

The increase in the terror group’s attacks is “a real threat to the security and stability of Iraq that needs to be stood against seriously,” President Barzani said in a statement. 

Two members of Saraya al-Salam militia were killed in an ISIS attack in Samarra while two civilians were killed in Baghdad’s Tarmiyah which remains vulnerable to the terror group’s attacks, Security Media Cell said in a tweet. 

A member of the Iraqi federal police was shot dead in Kirkuk, police spokesperson Amer Muheidin told Rudaw’s Hiwa Husamaddin. The people were also wounded.

The terror group also launched an attack in Diyala, killing four people and injuring 11 others, Diyala police spokesperson Nihad Ahmed said.

ISIS controlled vast lands in Iraq in 2014, but the terror group became fully devoid of territorial control in 2017. While the group lacks any territory, it still continues to pose security risks through abductions, hit-and-run attacks, and bombings.

The Iraqi army and Peshmerga forces on Tuesday launched a new joint operation to eliminate ISIS sleeper cells in Makhmour's Mount Qarachogh, an area infamous for ISIS activity. 

On Thursday, an attack by six ISIS militants left five civilians and three others wounded in Diyala, and all of the victims were from the same family. 

In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted three attacks in Iraq from July 14 to July 20, killing and injuring 13 people.