Senior ISIS member arrested by PMF in Kirkuk

Shafaq News/ A senior member of the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group has been captured in a security operation in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, a press release by al-Hashd al-Shaabi said on Sunday.

The press release issued by the state-sanctioned paramilitary group said that the arrest followed "thorough intelligence work and surveillance" and after obtaining an arrest warrant from the Iraqi judiciary.

"The arrestee served in the so-called Wilayas of Kirkuk and Nineveh with terrorist gangs and took part in the battles of Kirkuk and Mosul," it said.

The arrest warrant, according to the press release, was issues in accordance with Article 4 of the Iraqi law on terrorism.

The United Nations estimated in a report in March that ISIL still has "5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters" across Iraq and neighbouring Syria, "roughly half of whom are fighters".

Remaining cells affiliated with the group continue to target security forces and civilians in both countries, but the UN report said ISIS has been much depleted by "sustained counterterrorism operations" on both sides of the border.

Over several years, Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences as well as life imprisonment under the penal code for membership in "a terrorist group".

In August 2023, Iraq executed three people convicted in a 2016 bombing case involving the ISIS armed group that killed hundreds of people.

Iraq executed at least 11 people in 2022, which was fewer than the US, and sentenced at least 41 to death, according to Amnesty International.