ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Sulaimani-based Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) said the Friday attack on local security forces (Asayish) in the province’s Qaradagh district was carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS) group. Initially, the attackers were thought to be looters. “While the Asayish forces were performing their routine duties near an archaeological site in Qaradagh town on Friday afternoon, a number of armed individuals clashed with the Asayish, killing two of its members,” the CTG said in a statement early Saturday. “Based on the information we have gathered, the armed individuals are members of an ISIS cell who had come to the area to hide,” the statement continued, adding that investigations are ongoing and efforts to apprehend the ISIS suspects are underway. Sulaimani Asayish said on Friday that the armed individuals attacked the Asayish team in the Naram-Sin archaeological site while they were patrolling the area. There are scores of archaeological sites in the Kurdistan Region and they are often subject to looting or vandalism. ISIS has not yet claimed responsibility for the Qaradagh attack. ISIS rose to power and seized control of large swathes of Iraqi territory during a brazen offensive in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017 when its so-called caliphate in the country fell to Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, supported by a US-led international coalition. Despite its territorial defeat, the group continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, which stretch across the provinces of Salahaddin, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.
