PHOTOS: terrorists plotting to turn Eid bloody arrested

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdsitan24) – On Wednesday morning, the security forces of Kirkuk Province arrested a group of jihadists who had planned to attack a few populated mosques.

Kurdistan24's Hemin Dalo reported that in the early morning of Wednesday, Kirkuk forces arrested nine suicide-vest-wearing terrorists who were going to kill civilians during Eid prayer.

Dalo noted that they were arrested in the neighborhood of Panja Ali, Kirkuk. The security has confiscated many suicide vests that were prepared to be used in targeting different parts of Kirkuk.

[Photos below are the arrested group with confiscated explosive devices. July 6, 2016. (Photo: Kurdistan24/Hemin Dalo)]

According to Kirkuk security, the group is under interrogation. The security has arrested many other jihadists that had hands in various terrorist activities in Kirkuk and other provinces of Iraq.

Kirkuk security told Kurdistan24 they continuously conduct intelligence operations inside the province and have confiscated weapons and explosive devices on several occasions.

Kirkuk is home to almost 600,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled from different parts of Iraq due to the threat of the Islamic State (IS) following the group’s emergence in northern Iraq on June 2014.

Kirkuk is an ethnically and religiously diverse and oil-rich province where Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs and Christians live. Following the emergence of IS in the country, the security of federal government of Iraq abandoned the Province and fled to other parts of the Kurdistan Region. Since then, Kirkuk is administered and secured by the Kurdish security and Peshmerga forces.

Kurdish Peshmerga commanders told Kurdistan24 that IS often sends sleeper cells with IDPs who flee from their territory to the areas under the control of Peshmerga forces. Peshmerga has a strong monitoring on the front lines before allowing them to pass the area.

Editing by Ava Homa
(Hemin Dalo contributed to this report)