Imam of mosque killed in wake of sermon urging fighting Islamic State militants in Anbar
Iraqi soldiers hunt for Islamic State militants
“Members of Islamic State stormed into house of Mounir Okab al-Duleimi, Imam of a mosque in Rutba town, west of Anbar, and shot him dead,” Qutri al-Obeidi, of the mobilization forces of Anbar, told Almaalomah website on Friday.
“Investigations showed that murdering Duleimi came in the wake of his Friday sermon, that he gave last week, urging necessity to fight Islamic State members,” he added.
Troops, according to Obeidi, “carried out a campaign in search for the perpetrators.”
Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country. The group still has dormant cells, through which it carries out attacks, across Iraq like it used to do before 2014.
A total of 75 Iraqi civilians were killed, while 179 others were injured due to acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in September 2018, according to casualty figures by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Baghdad came on top of the worst affected Governorate, with 101 civilian casualties (31 killed, 70 injured), followed by Anbar (15 killed and 37 injured).
In December, Iraq announced gaining control on all the territories that were captured by Islamic State, since 2014