Shafaq News/ Diyala's local government has devised a comprehensive plan to repopulate more than 20 villages that were evacuated by ISIS runover in 2014, Spokesperson Yaser Badr revealed on Sunday, but excluded people involved with the hardliner Sunni group.

"The local administration has completed preparations to repatriate the residents of 17 villages on the outskirts of Saadiyah sub-district, 60 kilometers to the northeast of Baqubah," Badr told Shafaq News Agency, "lack of services has impeded their return for years."

"Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) has mobilized troops to secure the territory. More than 500 million dinars were spent to reconstruct and rehabilitate the area," he added.

Badr revealed that the Iraqi government plans to repatriate the internally displaced people (IDPs) who left their homes in five villages in al-Miqdadiyah due to ISIS.

"The villages of Khailaniyah and Nahr Imam, in addition to the first and second Mithaq, have endured the atrocities of ISIS and its bloody massacres by the end of 2021," he explained, "the plan encompasses compensations and infrastructure in a bid to facilitate the people's return."

"Of course, this does not apply to the persons involved or collaborated with ISIS," he concluded.