ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least two leaders of the Islamic State (ISIS) were detained in Thursday’s hostage rescue operation in Hawija by US and Peshmerga forces, an Iraqi official announced.
Khaled al-Mafraji, an MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw Sunday that one of the arrested ISIS leaders was named Hakim Mohammed Nazm Mufraji, a native of Hawija. The second is known as Abu Omer, from the town of Sleiman Bagh.
Mafraji said the pair are well informed about ISIS strategies and plans in Iraq.
On Sunday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) released an exclusive video and more information on the joint US-Kurdish commando operation against an ISIS prison south of Kirkuk, in which 69 hostages were rescued.
According to the KRSC statement, 48 Peshmerga from the Counter Terror Department (CTD) and 30 US Special Forces soldiers took part of the operation, which lasted two hours.
The KRSC has confirmed that none of the rescued prisoners were Kurds but that more than 20 were ex-members of the Iraqi security forces about to be executed by ISIS.
The KRSC said it considers the Hawija operation the "single most significant joint rescue operation based out of the Kurdistan region conducted deep in ISIS territory."
