SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi forces arrested a senior member of Islamic State (ISIS) in Kirkuk province, the Iraqi intelligence agency said on Wednesday.
The Agency of Intelligence and Federal Investigation said in a statement that its forces had detained ISIS mufti of Rashad district in the so-called Kirkuk state based on intelligence information.
“He confessed his affiliation with those criminal gangs and provided logistical support to ISIS members,” the intelligence agency said.
The ISIS senior member who was arrested in accordance with Article 4 of counter-terrorism law has two brothers and a cousin within the “ranks of ISIS gangs”, the agency added. “His sister is the wife of one of the ISIS leaders in Kirkuk.”
Iraqi forces have stepped up efforts to detain ISIS militants in the provinces of Kirkuk, Saladin, Anbar and Baghdad. On September 22, Iraqi forces detained head of ISIS sleeper cell in Makhmour district, southwest of Erbil.
On September 19, the security forces detained an ISIS leader in Kirkuk province.
Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December 2017 but the militants have regrouped in the Hamrin mountain range which extends into the northern provinces – an area described by officials as a “triangle of death”.
