A security operation in Baghdad’s Sunni-majority towns of Mahmudiyah, about 30 kilometers south of Baghdad, and Tarmiyah, some 60 kilometers north of the capital, “resulted in the arrest of nine suspects,” state media said, citing a Baghdad Operations Command statement.
The suspects’ names are included in the wanted list by the Iraqi judiciary, according to the statement.
Traditionally Sunni areas of northern and western Iraq were hit hardest during the years-long conflict with the Islamic State (ISIS), and pockets of the group remain active.
It is unclear if the arrested suspects had connections with ISIS.
The Sunni-majority towns around Baghdad, especially Tarmiyah, were vulnerable when ISIS jihadists controlled swathes of Iraq from 2014 to 2017. The militants regularly extorted the population and used the area as a launchpad to attack the nearby capital, even years after their territorial defeat.
Despite ISIS being devoid of territorial control, it has continued to pose a serious security threat to the country through attacks, bombings, and abductions in several provinces, particularly those disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which include Diyala, Salahaddin, and Kirkuk.
