Kurdistan’s Counter-Terrorism arrests two Islamic State members in Erbil

The Kurdistan Region’s Counter-Terrorism service this week announced it had arrested two “terrorists” belonging to the Islamic State in the capital of Erbil.

The Counter-Terrorism General-Directorate of the Kurdistan Region’s Security Council (KRSC) stated they had carried out an operation to arrest the two members of the jihadist group after receiving credible information and monitoring their actions for a period of time.

The names of the jihadists are Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed Jadi’ and Qahtan Ali Ahmed Jadi’, who had previously operated as security members with the Islamic State in areas it controlled, according to the Counter-Terrorism service’s statement.

It also mentioned the operation to was carried out on Wednesday after they received a judge’s court order.

The directorate also revealed that six more people suspected of being involved in terrorist activities in the country had been arrested in the same operation and that legal measures would be taken against them.

Over the past decade, the Kurdistan Region has been an area known for its relative safety compared to the rest of Iraq.

Kurdish intelligence and security forces have arrested multiple members of the Islamic State, a group that emerged in mid-2014 and quickly took over one-third of Iraq before it was militarily defeated three years later.

Although Iraq declared victory against the Islamic State in Dec. 2017, the jihadist group continues to carry out insurgency attacks, ambushes, and kidnapping in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin, and Nineveh.