Two Islamic State militants of Arab origins apprehended in Iraq
Iraqi troops arrest suspected terrorists in Baghdad
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi authorities announced on Wednesday that two Islamic State militants of Arab origins were arrested in Nineveh province.
“Security forces in Nineveh Operations Command received intelligence reports about the presence of Islamic State’s dormant cells in the province,” Baghdad Today website quoted spokesman for the Security Media Center Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool as saying in a statement.
“The troops managed to arrest two IS terrorists, who were found to be of Arab origins,” the statement read.
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.
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.