Iraqi official warns of imminent IS attacks via Turkey
Islamic State’s militants. File photo
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State sleeper cells are preparing for attacks at several world cities to divert attention from their major setbacks in Syria and Iraq, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Sunday.
The head of Iraqi Falcon Intelligence Cell (FIC), Abu Ali al-Basri, al-Basri told state-owned AlSabah newspape that “The Mosul battle showed that the capabilities of the terrorist organization threaten not only Iraq and the region, but also many parts of the world,”
Al-Basri warned of the IS’s imminent plans to carry out global attacks. “The terror group has sent sleeper cells from Syria through Turkey to deploy around the world in order to spread terror and chaos, using money paid by extremist clerics who have political goals,” as he put it.
On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, head of the Nineveh Operations at the Joint Operations Command, said in a briefing that more than 25.000 militants were killed over the nine months of battles, including more than 450 suicide bombers.
Last week, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi declared, victory in the city of Mosul, ending an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces, which has displaced more than 900.000 civilians.
The victory in Mosul also means an effective collapse of the Islamic State’s self-styled “caliphate” declared from Mosul’s Old City by the group’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.