Iraqi police arrest Islamic State militant in Mosul
A Shi’ite volunteer wearing a mask, who has joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), looks on during a parade on a street in Kanaan, Diyala province, June 26, 2014.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi police forces arrested on Tuesday an Islamic State terrorist in the western side of Mosul, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said.
“The terrorist, as a member of Islamic State religious police (al-Hisbah), used to prevent citizens from cutting their beard or smoking, and forced women to wear Niqab,” Alghad Press quoted Major General Saad Maan as saying.
According to the spokesman, the terrorist was arrested in al-A’lam district in the western side of Mosul based on intelligence reports.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.