PHOTO: Senior IS leader arrested trying to sneak among IDPs

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Peshmerga forces on Monday arrested an Islamic State (IS) leader sneaking among a group of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled IS-controlled areas southeast of Kirkuk.

Majid Khalaf Sleman, an IS leader, attempted to escape among civilians to Peshmerga-controlled areas in Kirkuk.

The IS leader was arrested by Peshmerga forces in the village of Graw on the Makhmour front line.

Sleman carried identification papers confirming his membership with IS.

As Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces close in on IS extremists in Mosul and Hawija, IS’ last stronghold in Iraq, many insurgents infiltrate among IDPs either to flee or to launch attacks.

On Monday, Peshmerga revealed to Kurdistan24 that 250 IDPs fled IS-controlled areas southeast of Kirkuk towards the Peshmerga front lines.

Additionally, about 800 other civilians, mostly women and children, fled from areas under IS control in Hawija to a Peshmerga front line in Kirkuk.

In June 2014, IS emerged in northern Iraq where they began their terror campaign leading to hundreds of thousands of people being forcibly displaced.

The Kurdistan Region is currently home to approximately 1.8 million IDPs and refugees.

As the operation to liberate the IS-held areas in southeast Kirkuk and Mosul approaches, civilians continue to flee toward the areas controlled by Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC) expects the displacement of nearly one million people.

Moreover, 500,000 of them are likely to go to the areas controlled by the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga forces where their safety is guaranteed.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany