...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
suspects in separate operations in three northern and western provinces.
The ICTS said in a statement that their forces "carried out a series of precise security operations that resulted in the arrest of five Lions of Islam in separate areas," adding that the operations were carried out based on intelligence and field surveillance of the group’s activities.
Two of the suspects were arrested in an operation in Kirkuk province. The suspects were allegedly "working as transporters, suppliers, and controllers for the defeated ISIS terrorist gangs." Two others were arrested in two security operations in Anbar province, which borders Syria. The fifth one was arrested in Nineveh province.
The ICTS affirmed its "continued implementation of preemptive operations in line with an advanced security strategy aimed at achieving a safe and stable Iraq."
Iraq’s intelligence agency announced on Wednesday the arrest of two people for writing ISIS slogans on the walls of schools in Kirkuk. They allegedly planned to carry out attacks in the province.
The ICTS announced earlier this month the arrest of six suspected ISIS members and the destruction of several holy warrior hideouts during coordinated security operations across the country.
ISIS seized control of large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014, but was defeated in 2017 after three years of fierce battles. Despite its defeat, the group continues to threaten security, especially in disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad, spanning several provinces including Diyala, Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
Nineveh and Salahaddin provinces.