Iraq arrests two IS terrorists implicated in car bomb attack
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) – An Iraqi paramilitary force announced on Sunday that two Islamic State terrorists had been arrested for their involvement in a deadly car bomb attack in Nineveh province.
The paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces said in a press statement that the two IS militants were arrested during a counter-terrorism operation in al Baaj district in Tel Afar.
According to the statement, the pair were involved in a deadly car bomb attack in Tel Afar district a few months ago, which left scores of citizens dead and wounded.
Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi announced in August 2017 that Nineveh province was fully liberated from Islamic State after the district of Tal Afar was recaptured.
The announcement came after the defeat of the jihadist group in the town of Ayadiya, where the militants had fled to from Tal Afar. Islamic State militants seized control of much of Nineveh, including the provincial capital of Mosul, in June 2014.
The Iraqi government launched an operation to retake Tal Afar on 20 August involving some 50,000 personnel from the army, air force, federal police, special forces and the Shia Muslim-led paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces.