SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi intelligence units arrested a senior member of Islamic State (ISIS) in Baghdad, an agency said on Saturday.
In a statement, Iraqi National Intelligence Service said the senior ISIS member was detained in an ambush in Dora district in southern Baghdad, according to state media INA.
“Detachments of the Intelligence Agency … managed to arrest one of the terrorists wanted in accordance with Article 4 of [counter-terrorism law] for belonging to ISIS terrorist gangs, who worked as the commander of one of the military detachments in the so-called South Sector,” the agency said.
Recently, Iraqi forces have stepped up efforts to detain ISIS militants in the provinces of Kirkuk, Saladin, Nineveh, Anbar and Baghdad. The security forces have detained and killed dozens of ISIS members in the past weeks.
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”.
