Iraqi police launch manhunt for Islamic State remnants in Salahuddin
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.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi security forces have launched a manhunt for Islamic State remnants at three villages on the outskirts of Salahuddin province, a police chief was quoted as saying.
“A joint police force carried out a security operation to purge the villages of Omar Manda, Umm al-Ghezlan and Snidij from Islamic State remnants,” Diyala police chief Major-General Faisal Kazem al-Abadi told Alghad Press news website on Wednesday.
“The security operation aims at pursuing Islamic State terrorists and securing all the roads between Salahuddin and other provinces,” Abadi added.
Between June 2014 and December 2017, the Islamic State group seized large areas of Iraq and led a campaign of widespread violence and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – acts that amounted to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide.
Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Islamic State militants in Iraq on December 9, 2017 three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.