A prominent ISIL leader arrested in S Baghdad

The Iraqi intelligence service announced on Wednesday the arrest of a prominent leader of the ISIL terrorist group in the south of Baghdad.

Iraq’s intelligence service said in a statement that intelligence forces managed to arrest a terrorist in the Al-Dora area by continuously pursuing and interrogating refugees in Baghdad province.

Al-Maalomah quoted the statement as saying that the man had been prosecuted under Article 4 of the Terrorism and was a Mufti of ISIL in the Al-Furat area of Al-Anbar province.

The statement said that this ISIL element entered Baghdad province along with other refugees after the liberation of Al-Anbar province, in order to hide from the security forces.

The ISIL terrorist group has a number of cells in the northern, eastern and southern regions of Iraq and has intensified its attacks on Iraqi civilians and security forces in the past two months which has been unprecedented since 2017.

In recent months, Hashd al-Sha’abi forces and the Iraqi Army have carried out a series of operations against ISIL members in Al Anbar, Nineveh, Saladin governorates since the middle of last month.