“In three separate operations and in coordination with the Iraqi national security forces, three wanted terrorists were arrested in the areas of Sulaimani, Chamchamal, and Sharazur,” Colonel Salam Abdulkhaliq, head of the Sulaimani-based Asayish media team, told Rudaw.
All three suspects “were active members of the ISIS organization,” Abdulkhaliq said.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.
The militants have taken shelter in an area of land stretching across the provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh where there is a security vacuum because it is disputed between Baghdad and Erbil.
Kurdish and Iraqi security forces frequently cooperate and carry out joint operations against ISIS cells in the Kurdistan Region.
Thousands of people have been detained across Iraq since 2014 for suspected links to extremist groups, including ISIS, and hundreds have been executed.
Malik Mohammed contributed to this report.
