After ISIS arrests in Erbil, PM Barzani congratulates Kurdistan Region security forces
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Following the announcement on Saturday of a successful counter-terrorism operation in Erbil, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani posted a message of congratulations and appreciation to the autonomous region's forces.
“I was pleased to receive word from our security services that they have successfully disrupted an ISIS terror cell,” he wrote on his official Twitter page.
In his tweet, Barzani made a point to give public credit to the Kurdistan Region’s forces, writing, “We can all give thanks for the hard work they do to keep our families and communities safe from terrorism.”
I was pleased to receive word from our security services that they have successfully disrupted an ISIS terror cell and a very real threat in Erbil.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) December 18, 2021
We can all give thanks for the hard work they do to keep our families and communities safe from terrorism -mb.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC), formerly led by Prime Minister Barzani, released recorded confessions from suspects accused of committing or planning acts of terror that include recruiting individuals for suicide bombings.
Read More: KRSC arrests ISIS members in Erbil
The KRSC announced that the detainees were part of what ISIS calls its Northern Baghdad Group and were captured in Erbil by the Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter-Terrorism.
“The group has been working on recruiting suicide bombers from Erbil, and so far, it was able to recruit three suicide bombers,” read a KRSC statement. “One of the group’s terrorist activities was committing the suicide bombing in Sadr City in Baghdad on July 19, 2021.”
“The group has been buying weapons and other military equipment and sending it to Baghdad,” the KRSC added. “The group had plans to conduct additional terrorist operations in the future.”
The KRSC operation came just two days after an elite unit of Kurdish forces arrested two men accused of being ISIS arms smugglers in Erbil, according to a statement released on Thursday by the US-led Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Read More: Kurdistan Region counter-terrorism unit arrests ISIS arms smugglers in Erbil: Coalition
On Wednesday, the Kurdish Asayish security forces also arrested 25 suspected ISIS facilitators in the Kurdistan Region's province of Halabja.
A statement released on Thursday by the Sulaimani Governorate Security Directorate explained that its forces launched the operation after they learned that the group plotted to carry out “terrorist acts in the borders of Sulaimani, Halabja, and Garmiyan administration to destroy the security of the region.”
Read More: Kurdish Asayish arrest 25 ISIS suspects in Halabja province