Security arrest two ISIS militants involved in recent series of attacks in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Security forces on Thursday announced that they had arrested two Islamic State militants responsible for the recent explosion in Kirkuk Province.

Iraq’s Security Media Cell stated the pair was arrested on June 3 and both have admitted to their involvement in planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Kirkuk on May 30.

The IEDs were planted in al-Quds Street and Baghdad Road of Kirkuk.

Both of them have confessed before the investigative judge that they worked with the Islamic State following the emergence of the jihadist group in Iraq in 2014, according to the statement.

On the night of May 30, six explosions rocked the disputed province of Kirkuk and two IEDs were defused by security forces.

The series of attacks killed and injured at least 21 people, local medical and security sources said.

Kirkuk, a disputed province between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government, has been subject to instability since a military takeover by Iraqi troops and Shia militias in response to the Kurdistan Region’s historic referendum in 2017.

The Kurdish Peshmerga had advanced to protect the area following the 2014 emergence of the Islamic State and did so before they were ousted from the region in October 2017.

Although Iraq declared military defeat over the Islamic State in December 2017, the terrorist group continues to carry out insurgency-style attacks in formerly liberated areas, like Mosul, as well as even places it never controlled, like the nation’s capital of Baghdad.

Editing by Nadia Riva