ISIS still threating Iraq in different governorates

Shafaq News / the Security Media Cell announced on Sunday, that the Iraqi forces had thwarted ISIS attacks in Kirkuk Governorate, and other forces arrested militants accused of murder, robbery and drug trafficking in Maysan.

“Based on Iraqi Intelligence, the Kirkuk intelligence service supported by a force from the 18th Brigade destroyed ISIS hideout in the Zghitoun Valley area of Al-Rashad - Daquq district.” The cell said in a statement.

It explained that "the hideout was used for launching terrorist acts."

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces backed by the US-led Coalition killed two ISIS operatives in Wadi Al-Kour, while Kirkuk Intelligence Directorate arrested another terrorist in the Governorate.

For its part, the Maysan Police Directorate said in a statement that “the town’s crime-fighting division, in cooperation with the SWAT force in the governorate arrested a number of suspects for murder, robbing and drugs trafficking.”

In another context, a government official in Saladin Governorate confirmed, on Sunday, residents of more than 10 villages in the north of the Shirqat district refused to be displaced despite ISIS threats in order to avoid living in bad social conditions.

The director of the Tulul al-Baj district located among Saladin, Nineveh and Anbar governorates , Hatem al-Shammari, told Shafaq News agency "More than 10 agricultural villages are 500 meters far from ISIS threat, refuse to leave their areas."

Al-Shammari called on the security forces to deport ISIS members from the borders of Tulul Al-Baj for a distance of no less than 5 km to protect agricultural villages from possible terrorist attacks.

In 2017, Iraq declared final victory over ISIS after Iraqi forces drove its last remnants from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.

Yet, ISIS still has sleeper cells in several Iraqi Governorates.