News / Iraq

Iraqi security forces strike Daesh militant positions in Diyala

Sunday, 10 June 2018 12:28 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 10 June 2018 1:03 PM ]

Members of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) take part in a training drill at the Special Forces Academy near Baghdad's international airport on March 19, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Iraqi security forces have launched a clean-up operation against the sleeper cells of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the country’s eastern province of Diyala as government troopers and allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units are trying to flush the extremists out of the war-ravaged Arab country.

Captain Habib al-Shammari said the offensive targeted Daesh terrorists in al-Mukhisa area, and three terrorists were arrested during the operation.

“Daesh terrorist cells have recently become active in carrying out attacks against security personnel in deserted roads and areas,” Shammari said.

Over the past few months, Daesh militant attacks against Iraqi security forces, pro-government volunteer fighters – better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi – and civilians have been on the rise in areas northeast of Diyala province.

Civilian bodies found in mass grave in Iraq’s Kirkuk

Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces have found a mass grave in the northern province of Kirkuk, which contains the bodies of a number of civilians believed to have been executed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists when they were in control of an area there.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency that federal police forces had made the discovery in the town of Hawijah, located 45 kilometers west of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk.

In this file picture, bones, suspected to belong to members of Iraq's Izadi community, are seen in a mass grave on the outskirts of the town of Sinjar. (Photo by Reuters)

He added that security forces had handed over all the bodies to the forensic department i to be identified and returned to their relatives.

On December 9, 2017, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country.

Seven months later, Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.

Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.

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