Commander: police arrest 40 IS members in Mosul’s recaptured areas

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Federal Police forces have detained 40 Islamic State members in Mosul areas which security forces had taken over, according to a senior operations commander.

Lt. Gen. Najm al-Jubouri, commander of the Nineveh Operations, said in statements Saturday that Federal Police forces arrested 40 during searches in the southern region of western Mosul. Those, he said, included Arab and foreign nationals.

The arrests were made after residents of those areas tipped off police about the suspects, according to Jubouri who revealed that police intelligence offices were opened in liberated areas to receive civilians’ information about IS vestiges.

The commander said the forces, carrying out the searches at the southern area, had found three underground tunnels used by the extremist group, adding that those tunnels, which extended beneath houses previously occupied by the militants, led to the western town of Tal Afar.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, took over eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting with IS, and have entered a third week of operations to clear the western region from militants. The troops have become closer to the central Mosul’s Old City, having recaptured major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport.