ISIS exploits the exchange of army units to set new targets
A government official in Diyala warned today, Monday, of possible “bloody” attacks carried out by ISIS elements, taking advantage of the exchange of army units between Diyala and Al-Anbar.
The official, who preferred to stay anonymous, told Shafaq News Agency; ISIS took advantage of the exchange of army units in the areas of the Khanaqin Basin and its surrounding to set targets for carrying out terrorist attacks.
He considered that kidnappings and killing civilians in north of Jalawla in the outskirts of Qara Tabbah, came due to this action.
Earlier, a security source in Diyala said, on Monday, that five people were killed in clashes between the residents and ISIS north of Diyala Governorate.
The source told Shafaq News Agency, that ISIS militants kidnapped two civilians in the village of Al-Qal’at on the outskirts of Jalawla, which prompted the father of the kidnapped to seek help from the people of Umm Al-Hinta village who rushed to chase ISIS elements.
He continued, “ISIS elements attacked the residents in an ambush on the outskirts of the Seif Saad, 35 km north of Jalawla, which resulted in the death of 5 residents, the injury of two others, stressing that the kidnapped were able to escape during clashes”
The source confirmed that the clashes took place without the participation of the security forces, who launched a campaign in search of the attackers.
It is noteworthy that the areas north of Jalawla have been witnessing security turmoil for more than two years after the infiltration of ISIS elements fleeing from the liberated areas and governorates to the orchards and the agricultural fields.
Jalawla, 70 km northeast of Baqubah, a town of about 80,000 Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen just south of Diyala’s border with Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, has long experience with
In 2017, Iraq declared final victory over ISIS after Iraqi forces drove its last remnants from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.
Yet, ISIS still has sleeper cells in several Iraqi Governorates.
Source: Shafaq
