Akkab Hamad Nijris Dali, nicknamed Abu Jamal, held the position of ISIS’ Sharia judge in the so-called Tigris state and had “issued multiple fatwa inciting the targeting of security forces and those who cooperated with them,” according to a statement from the Iraqi intelligence.
A Sharia judge is a judge who issues rulings based on Islamic law.
The statement added that Dali had fled to Syria in 2017 following the militant group’s defeat in Iraq, but had returned in 2023 based on the group’s orders. The suspect was tracked in multiple countries before being arrested based on “accurate intelligence.”
The location of the arrest was not revealed, but the statement mentioned that the operation was carried out in coordination with the counterterrorism services in Sulaimani.
Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed.
ISIS seized control of vast swathes of land in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. While the group no longer controls any territory, it continues to pose a serious security risk through bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that at least 13 ISIS operatives were killed and an additional 21 detained in partnered operations with their allies in Iraq and Syria during the month of June.
