Interior ministry: 2 Islamic State terrorists apprehended in Mosul
Iraqi security forces arrest a suspected member of the Islamic State group in Iraq. File photo
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) – Two Islamic State militants were arrested Monday during security campaigns in Mosul city, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced.
“The two terrorists were members of the Islamic State’s police department and Diwan al-Jund (soldiers diwan) during the group’s capture of Mosul city,” Al-Madar News website quoted Spokesman for the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Saad Maan as saying.
He added that the two terrorists were arrested in al-Islah al-Zeraei and al-Hadbaa districts in Mosul.
Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi announced in July 2017 liberation of the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul from IS militants, who had captured it in 2014. More than 25,000 militants were killed throughout the campaign, which started in October 2016.
Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.
IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.