SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan commando forces announced that it had rescued a Kirkuk citizen after six months of being kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS).
“On Aug. 28, 2022, several ISIS militants had captured two Kurdish citizens, Ali Kaka Alaw and Aram Hadi, in Kirkuk’s Jabal Bor village,” read a statement from the commando forces on Monday.
“39-year-old Kak Alaw had been immediately killed by the ISIS militants back then whose career was Peshmerga,” the statement said.
However, “In the meantime, the ISIS militants had kidnapped Hadi to an unknown destination, and he has been rescued by the Kurdistan commando forces the last Sunday near Rokhana river in Kirkuk province,” the statement added.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014. While the group has been declared territorially defeated in 2017, it still poses a serious security threat to the country which is capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks and abductions of locals.
The militants are most active in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad.
In late January, at least five alleged ISIS terrorists were arrested by the Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency of Iraq arrested amid an operation in Kirkuk province.
