ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) were arrested during operations in Baghdad and Nineveh provinces, Iraqi national security forces announced on Tuesday.
The Iraqi forces said in a statement they captured Abu Anas al-Iraqi in Baghdad, and he was involved with the group’s Salahaddin cell.
“After the liberation operations concluded, the terrorist once again went to the capital of Baghdad, where he forged official documents impersonating his deceased brother,” the statement added.
“He also forged a fake death certificate in his real name, but our men were watching, and he was apprehended,” the Iraqi forces added.
In a separate operation in the Makhmour district of Nineveh, the security forces said they arrested Allawi Shat for working for ISIS in an administrative position in Baghdad.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but has continued to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions- especially in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, stretching across Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh provinces.
Since 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to extremist groups, including ISIS, and hundreds have been executed.
