ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi counter terrorism forces (ICTS) announced on Sunday that they captured a high-ranking Islamic State (ISIS) security official in Fallujah, while at least one Iraqi soldier was killed by an ISIS attack in south of Kirkuk on Saturday.
Iraqi counter terrorism forces announced in a tweet on Sunday that the unnamed ISIS security official for Fallujah was arrested in the city itself.
The arrest follows the capture of a senior ISIS mufti in Mosul’s Mansour neighbourhood, announced by the Media Cell on Thursday.
The ISIS mufti, Shifa al-Nima, was responsible for issuing several brutal fatwas calling for fighting against the Iraqi army, blowing up Mosul’s Prophet Yunus mosque and the killing of academics and clerics who refused to join the terror group.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory in summer 2014 and was declared defeated in December 2017 after an international military campaign against the group.
Though they no longer control territory, ISIS militants remain a security threat, especially in areas that are disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.
The Iraqi Security Media Cell also revealed on Saturday that one Iraqi soldier had been killed after ISIS militants attacked an army checkpoint in southern Kirkuk.
“Members of the ISIS terrorist attacked a checkpoint point belonging to the 1st Company of the 3rd Regiment in the 45th brigade in the Iraqi army, in the area of Tal Al-Deeb in the province of Kirkuk, which led to the martyrdom of one of the soldiers from the 3rd Regiment.” Iraqi Security Media Cell tweeted.
Kirkuk has seen a spate of ISIS attacks in recent months, with sleeper cell offensives killing both civilians and military personnel.
Worries of an ISIS resurgence have grown following calls for the expulsion of foreign troops from Iraq.
In the wake of increased tensions between the US and Iran after the US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in the first week of January, the Coalition temporarily suspended its counter-ISIS and training missions in Iraq to focus on force protection.
Shiite blocs in the Iraqi Parliament, outraged at the lack of respect for their country's sovereignty, also passed a non-binding resolution calling for the expulsion of all foreign troops in Iraq.
The United States rejected a request from caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to start withdrawing troops from Iraq, and announced on Wednesday that the coalition would resume joint operations against ISIS in Iraq. However, a later press release quoted coalition spokesperson Colonel Myles B. Caggins III as indicating that the mission to train local forces “remains paused.”
