SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish counter-terrorism forces arrested a group of Islamic State (ISIS) suspects who were involved in an explosion in Baghdad in July, authorities said on Saturday.
The Kurdistan Region’s Security Council (KRSC) released a confession video of the group including eight members on Saturday night.
The security council said the group was affiliated to the so-called north Baghdad state of the Islamic State, which planned to carry out more “terrorist acts” in Erbil.
“The group included a security group, and it had established a detachment in Erbil city in the past and provided suicide bombers for this detachment,” the KRSC added.
“In the terrorist acts of this group, one of its suicide bombers, named Hidayat, blew himself up in Sadr City in Baghdad on July 19, 2021,” the KRSC added.
Thirty-five people were killed and 60 others wounded in the explosion that hit a crowded market in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on July 19, the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
“The group had also started purchasing weapons and military equipment and transferred them to Baghdad,” the KRSC said.
“They also planned to carry out more terrorist acts in the future,” it added.
The five suspects, named Adam Sleman Saadi, Mohammed Abdulkarim Aziz, Samir Shamsadin Omer, Idris Sakran Mohammed, and Akam Abdulqadir Mahmoud, confessed to their membership to ISIS in the video.
Saadi, known as Abu Islam, confessed in the video that he got into “jihadi idea” through ISIS-affiliated channels.
“They trusted me more. They recognized my father who was in Ansar al-Islam before,” Saadi, 24, said.
He added that he sat down with his friend, Mohammed Shaaban known as Abu Hajer, to create a group inside Erbil.
Abu Hajer, who was emir of the group according to Saadi, remains at large, the KRSC said.
“We later sat down with another person, named Abdulsalam, a resident of Baghdad, and he was a member of the Islamic State and had connection with north Baghdad state,” he said.
Saadi further said Abdulsalam, whose real name is Saad Ahdhin Kadhim, had created connection between the group and Saif, an ISIS emir leading the so-called north Baghdad state.
“He supervised us,” Saadi added.
Two other members of the group who are still at large are Mikael Abdulrazaq Khalil, known as Mala Mikael, and Ibrahim Zyad Mahmoud, known as Ala, the KRSC said.
The Kurdish forces have increased operations against ISIS members in the Region, detaining dozens of suspects in the past months.
Last week, U.S.-led Coalition forces said the counter-terrorism forces had detained two ISIS arms smugglers during an operation in the Al Zaytun area of Erbil.
Earlier this month, the security forces detained an ISIS leader and a group of militants in Halabja province, according to the security forces and Coalition forces.
Kurdish counter-terrorism forces arrested two “terrorists” in the Kurdistan Region, the counter-terrorism directorate said on December 2. They confessed that they were involved in “several terrorist acts” in Kirkuk and Hamrin mountains, it added.
In September, the Kurdish forces detained a group of seven ISIS militants in Erbil, planning to carry out “terrorist acts” in the city.
In July, the security forces also detained a group of ISIS militants including five suspects who planned to attack the Erbil governorate’s building and places where foreign nationals stay.
The federal government announced victory over ISIS by the end of 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led Coalition regained control of areas once captured by the militant group.
Despite its defeat, ISIS still poses a threat to the security and stability of the country as there are still sleeper cells in Iraq.
