Iraqi troops kill IS militant, arrest another in Diyala province
Islamic State militants. File photo
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi military intelligence forces killed on Sunday an Islamic State militant and arrested another after storming their terrorist hotbed in Diyala, an army commander said.
They are implicated in an attack on a police station in Khanaqin district, Almaalomah news website quoted Ali al-Sudani, the head of Diyala intelligence directorate, as saying.
He added that the troops found weapons and explosive charges inside the hideout.
The slain Islamic State militant was found to be of foreign origin, Sudani noted.
In January 2015, Iraqi forces announced liberation of Diyala province from Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The province has seen months of fighting between Iraqi troops and IS militants especially in the Jalawla and Saadiyah areas in the province’s north and areas near the town of Muqdadiyah.
Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Islamic State in Iraq on December 9, 2017 three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.
The jihadist group had seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, when it proclaimed a “caliphate” and imposed its rule over some 10 million people.
Despite the group’s crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country.