Officials warn of ISIS sleeper cells in Kirkuk

The Islamic State (IS) has already regrouped itself in areas around the province of Kirkuk and it has lately increased the number of its sleeper cells inside the city and put the security at a great risk, a security official said on Saturday.

Farhad Rafaat, an official within the Police Directorate of Kirkuk, told BasNews that a great part of the people in the city, including the Turkmen and Arabs, wish for the Kurdish security and Peshmerga forces’ return to the area as the security of the area is not stable under the control of the Iraqi army and Iranian-backed militias of Hashd al-Shaabi.

Head of the Police Directorate in Kirkuk, Sarhad Qadir, in the meantime has criticized the performance of the Iraqi security forces in the Kurdish disputed territories.

“The people of Kirkuk do not trust the current forces in the city,” Qadir noted, adding that when the Kurdish forces were in Kirkuk, the security of the city was secured.

Source: Basnews