SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish security forces detained several “terrorists” for placing an ISIS flag in Said Sadiq district in Sulaimani province.
The Kurdistan Region’s Security (Asayish) Agency said in a statement on Thursday that its units had arrested three “terrorists” in Said Sadiq on January 24 after gathering intelligence about them.
“They were plotters and executors of the terrorist act,” Asayish agency said.
Two of the detainees are siblings, according to the statement.
On January 2, two members of the Kurdish security forces were wounded after an improvised explosive device was hidden under an ISIS flag placed in an area near the village of Kani Sbilka in Said Sadiq in southeast of Sulaimani city.
The explosion occurred when the two members of Asayish were trying to pick up the flag.
“The terrorists intended to explode several other places in Sharazoor after that terror act,” the Asayish agency said.
The agency added that six other suspects were detained on January 28 over involvement in the “terrorist” act.
The detained siblings “are sons of terrorist Omer Dais, who was a member of al-Qaeda and was one of the militants of Ansar al-Islam terrorist group in Hawraman area,” the agency stated.
“They participated in several terrorist acts in 2001, and they ran away to areas outside the Kurdistan Region in 2003 when they were chased,” it said.
The three “terrorists” decided to build an “ISIS non-sleeper cell” in Sharazoor area and carry out attacks there after they pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015.
The Region’s security agency said two other “terrorists” were detained in two separate raids in Halabja province on Wednesday.
