Iraqi security announces capture of three Islamic State terrorists in Mosul

Iraqi security forces announced on Thursday the capture of three militants of Islamic State in the group’s last bastion of Mosul, a police chief was quoted as saying.

“Nineveh police arrested the three militants upon accurate intelligence data in Mosul city,” Baghdad Today website quoted Nineveh Police Chief Brig. Gen. Hamad Nems al-Jabouri as saying in a statement.

“The arrest was made pursuant to article 4/1 of the anti-terrorism law,” the statement read.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced last July the liberation of the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul from IS militants, who had captured it in 2014.

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.

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 earlier in November with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

The Islamic State group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it.

Source: Iraqi News