“Three nights ago, the Iraqi flag was removed from the primary school in Ofiya village in Hawija district and was replaced by the ISIS flag,” Sabir Mohammed, head of Kirkuk police’s media office, told Rudaw.
A federal police team arrived at the village on Saturday and removed the ISIS flag, returning the Iraqi banner to its place.
According to Mohammed, the village is rural, without surveillance cameras, and lacks access to electricity.
He did not name any suspects.
Hawija district, located in the southwest of Kirkuk province, has been a longtime bastion of insurgency in Iraq and was among the final holdouts of territory held by ISIS when the group was declared defeated in 2017.
ISIS remnants continue to pose security threats through hit-and-run attacks, abductions, and bombings, particularly in rural parts of Iraq disputed by the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Iraq uses its air force to crack down on ISIS sleeper cells, launching frequent airstrikes against their suspected hideouts in the provinces of Kirkuk, Salahaddin, Diyala, and Nineveh.
Nahro Mohammed contributed to this report.
