ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi intelligence arrested a man in Kirkuk, accused of spying on Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga for the Islamic State (ISIS) in the disputed province, according to a statement from the Iraqi interior ministry on Thursday. The unnamed “terrorist” was wanted by security forces for “his affiliation to Daesh terrorists and cooperation with them by transmitting information,” stated the ministry, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “During his initial investigation, he admitted that he provided information on the movements and locations of the security forces and Peshmerga forces [to ISIS] in exchange for money,” added the statement. Rudaw English reached out to several Peshmerga commanders for comment, but they were not available. ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land, including some parts of Kirkuk province, in 2014. The group was territorially defeated in Iraq in late 2017, but it has remained active, carrying out hit-and-run attacks against security forces, kidnapping civilians and military personnel, and is blamed for numerous bombings and attacks in rural areas. Between July 23 and August 19, ISIS conducted 101 attacks in Iraq, the group claimed in its weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba, accessible on its official Telegram channel. At least 12 of these attacks were reported in Kirkuk province. On Monday, ISIS killed four Iraqi soldiers and injured four others on a highway in southeastern Kirkuk. A recent US Pentagon report recorded more than 400 ISIS-claimed or suspected attacks in Iraq from April to June of this year, 70 of which took place in Kirkuk province. Kirkuk lies in territory disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil.
