Iraqi police forces arrest former Islamic State media official in Mosul

Security forces arrested on Tuesday a former Islamic State media official after raiding a house of one of his relatives in Mosul, a security source was quoted as saying.

Speaking to Baghdad Today news website, the source said that security forces “arrested Mazhar Hamad al-Ghesh at al-Houd village in southern Mosul district of Qayyarah.”

“Al-Ghesh was arrested while hiding inside a house of one of his relatives,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, stressing that the arrest was made upon accurate intelligence reports.

The source added that al-Ghesh, as a media official, was entitled to deliver press releases of the terrorist Islamic State group.

On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced liberation of the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul from IS militants, who had captured it in 2014. More than 25000 militants were killed throughout the campaign, which started in October 2016.

A government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and a U.S.-led international coalition, has been fighting the Islamic State group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.

Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq earlier this month with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

Source: Iraqi News