SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi security forces have detained an Islamic State (ISIS) leader in the country, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Minister of Interior Othman al-Ghanmi said in a statement that the intelligence forces arrested Karim Abdullah Malih who worked as a “battalion commander” in the militant group.
“The heroes of the Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency dealt a new blow to ISIS,” Ghanmi added.
“The detainee is responsible for a number of criminal operations,” he continued.
Malih’s arrest came in the third such operation conducted by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service since Iraq’s federal elections Oct. 10.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday announced the arrest of the mastermind behind a deadly 2016 bombing in a Baghdad shopping center, which killed around 300 people and wounded 250.
The suicide car bombing in the central Karradah district was the deadliest attack by a single bomber in the Iraqi capital after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi officials said they captured Sami Jasim, an ISIS leader on Oct. 11 in a similar operation abroad.
