Iraqi counter-terror forces arrest two ISIS militants in Kirkuk, seize mines
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services (ICTS) arrested two Islamic State (ISIS) militants in an operation in Kirkuk on Tuesday, also seizing mines belonging to the terror group in Baghdad.
“[I]CTS continued to target ISIS gangs in two different operations it carried out in Baghdad and Kirkuk, which resulted in the arrest of two ISIS remnants in Kirkuk,” the ICTS tweeted on Tuesday.
The operation was conducted with collaboration from the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS).
The ICTS also seized 48 anti-tank mines in Abu Ghraib, west of the capital Baghdad, the tweet added.
“The Monitoring and Investigation Unit of the CTS dismantled an explosive device planted by ISIS terrorist gangs to target a military convoy of the Iraqi security forces,” added Yehia Rasool, spokesperson for PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi as the commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces, in a separate tweet.
A spokesperson for the coalition against ISIS commended the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in a tweet and said, “The ISF continues to operate independently to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh [ISIS].”
Two ISIS militants were killed in a federal police operation in southwest Kirkuk on Saturday, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Interior.
The ICTS killed 42 ISIS fighters in an operation south of Mosul earlier this month, the force announced.
Security has been a constant concern in disputed areas like Kirkuk. Despite being territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017 after it swept across Iraq in 2014, ISIS has exploited security gaps between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in the province, with remnants of the group returning to their earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, and extorting money from vulnerable rural populations.
On Thursday, the group's weekly propaganda newspaper al-Naba claimed the group has killed and injured at least 14 security force members in Kirkuk in the past two weeks.