ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces on Saturday arrested four civilians who were allegedly funding the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Nineveh, forcing citizens to pay money to finance the organization, Iraq’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.
“After obtaining legal approvals, the National Security Agency detachments in western Nineveh managed to set up an elaborate ambush that resulted in the arrest of a cell of four terrorists who are forcing citizens to pay money to finance ISIS gangs and their terrorist operations,” read the statement from the cell.
The perpetrators “confessed to threatening and intimidating many citizens, as well as extorting money from them,” it added.
In the early hours of Saturday, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) also announced that they had thwarted an ISIS attack in Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad.
PMF also claimed that their reach in the area has expanded, and their capabilities to repel future attacks, with the help of air support, have greatly strengthened.
ISIS seized control of swathes of land in Iraq 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. ISIS remnants are particularly active in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed by Erbil and Baghdad, including in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.
Iraqi air force launched airstrikes that killed four ISIS members in Salahaddin province on Monday.
ISIS inflicted the deadliest attack on the Iraqi army in 2022 last week, when the militants attacked an Iraqi base in Diyala, killing 11 soldiers.
Iraqi and security forces often carry out operations against members of the terror group.
