Iraqi forces arrest alleged ISIS financier in Anbar

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi security forces on Monday announced the arrest of an alleged Islamic State financier during an operation in the western Anbar governorate.

A statement the Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate released explained that the detained was “responsible for distributing salaries and financial aid to ISIS [members] and their families” in the Al-Qa’m district, located west of Anbar.

“With accurate intelligence information, the military intelligence detachments in the 8th division, in cooperation with the intelligence of the 30th Infantry Brigade, arrested a terrorist in the Rummana district in Al-Qa’im,” the statement added.

Al-Qa’im is located to the west of Anbar, on the Syrian border, and has been the scene of the fiercest battles between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in recent years.

Iraqi forces, backed by the international anti-Islamic State coalition, carried out a military campaign last week to find sleeper cell hideouts of the extremist group in an inhospitable stretch of territory in the western Anbar province.

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Although Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State in December 2017, the extremist group continues to launch regular attacks, including bombings, kidnappings, and ambushes against both Iraqi security forces, Kurdish forces, and civilians in areas liberated from its control as well as in major cities it never took over, such as Baghdad and Kirkuk.

Recent unrest in Iraq in the form of widespread protests have slowed anti-Islamic State operations in the past few months. 

The terrorist group appears to have taken advantage of the situation and has carried out attacks with increasing regularity.

Indeed, on Monday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and another wounded when a car bomb parked on a side road exploded in the town of Al-Qa’im.