KALAR, Kurdistan Region — An Iraqi man who was in charge of transferring Islamic State (ISIS) members from Kirkuk to Diyala province near the Iranian border in recent months has been arrested, Kurdish security forces said on Thursday. This could be a major blow to the simmering insurgence that is brewing in the Sunni provinces in northern Iraq since the group’s territorial control of the area ended in late 2017.
“Over the past few days the Garmiyan Asayesh forces in Kalar managed to arrest an Arab suspect," Osman Abdulkarim, the spokesperson of the Garmiyan Asayesh announced in a press conference. "The suspect confessed before the investigating judge that he had joined the Daesh terrorist organization in Kirkuk."
Abdulkarim added the ISIS member, 22, also confessed that "he was in charge of the transfer of Daesh militants from Kirkuk and Hawija to Palkana."
"He had been trying to move from Kalar to Sulaimani using fake ID to hide himself..." he explained.
Garmiyan Asayesh spokesperson Osman Abdulkarim announces on April 11, 2019, in Kalar, Kurdistan Region, that a man confessed to moving Islamic State (ISIS) members from Kirkuk to Garmiyan. Photo: Rudaw TV
As part of the continued campaigns against ISIS remnants, last week the Garmiyan court handed down a five year prison sentence to four ISIS members from Kirkuk, Kifri, Tuz Khurmatu, and Kalar who had been arrested in raids carried out in mid-2018 after they had all confessed membership to the extremist group.
"Our forces will continue to pursue those militants who want hide themselves in these areas," added the official.
It was the seventh additional arrest of an ISIS member over the past two months in Garmiyan, Abdulkarim added.
Confessions, whether in earnest or coerced, are used frequently in courts across the Middle East as proof of one’s suspected guilt.
Rights groups have criticized Iraq for its prosecution of ISIS suspects. Human Rights Watch has reported judicial authorities are rushing trials and using coerced confessions.
ISIS was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017 by then PM Haider al-Abadi, but the group’s sleeper cells continue to pose a security threat in disputed or Kurdistani areas between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces.
Additionally, there have been reports of ISIS members fleeing from Syria into western Iraq’s Anbar province.
