Iraqi forces arrest 22 wanted ISIS terrorists in Mosul and destroyed tunnel network

In a large-scale security operation, Iraqi forces captured 22 Islamic State (IS) members in Mosul and confiscated batches of explosives, the military revealed on Monday.

“Nineveh Operations Command Forces arrested 22 criminals during an inspection in the village of Badush, northwest of Mosul. All of them were wanted by the Iraqi judiciary,” the Iraqi military statement read.

The statement mentioned that Iraqi troops destroyed ten explosive charges and underground tunnels that were abandoned by the jihadist group in Mosul.

The military also revealed that they had confiscated 155 mortars and ammunition.

Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, fell to IS in June 2014. The jihadist group declared Mosul its self-proclaimed capital in Iraq. After three years of occupation, Iraqi forces with the help of the Kurdish Peshmerga and the US-led coalition liberated the city in July 2017.

Iraq’s military campaign against IS ended in December, when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared victory over the organization and claimed to have taken ‘complete control’ of the Iraqi-Syrian border. Since then, IS fighters have been waging a small-scale insurgency in Iraq, often resorting to tactics used when they first emerged in Iraq, such as car bombings, ambushes, and kidnappings.

Last year, Iraqi forces arrested tens of thousands of people accused of being IS members and affiliates, most of whom are still awaiting sentencing. The most recent suicide bombing in the country was in Baghdad’s Shia-majority Shula district where four people were killed and 15 more injured.

Source: Kurdistan 24