Kurdish forces hand over ISIS suspects to Nineveh court
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish forces on Sunday handed over two alleged members of the Islamic State (ISIS) to a Nineveh court, Kurdistan counter-terrorism said in a statement. The suspects were arrested in the Kurdistan Region months ago.
Known as Faris Nuri Mohammed and Abd al-Karim Nuri Mohammed, the ISIS suspects were arrested in Erbil in late October.
“They were active members of the terrorist Daesh [ISIS] organization,” Kurdistan Region's counter-terrorism directorate said in a Facebook post.
Faris and Karim were handed over to Nineveh Investigative Court, the directorate added without disclosing further details regarding their case.
ISIS seized control of swaths of land in Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
The militants have taken shelter in a security vacuum in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across several provinces including Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
Multiple ISIS suspects have been arrested by Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Five ISIS suspects were arrested in Kirkuk in late December, shortly after another group of ISIS affiliates was detained in Erbil.
Two ISIS arm smugglers were also arrested in the Kurdish capital on December 16.
The terror group launched over 257 offensives, killing 387 and injuring 518 people, including Iraqi and Kurdish fighters over the past year.