Iraq says arrested Daesh member for gathering intel

Iraqi government forces deploy on the western outskirts of the Iraqi city of Tikrit, 160 kms north of Baghdad, during a military operation to retake control of the city from Daesh group. (AFP file photo)

• Daesh terrorists seized swathes of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” which they ruled with brutality before their defeat in late 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s interior ministry said Sunday an Daesh group member had been arrested in a Baghdad hotel, accusing him of carrying out intelligence-gathering missions for the terrorist organization.
The man, whose name was not given, was detained by “intelligence units charged with the security of tourist infrastructure,” a ministry press release said.
It said he was accused of supplying the terrorists with “personal information about members of the security forces in Nineveh province” in northern Iraq.
The man had confessed to being an Daesh member, it added.
Daesh terrorists seized swathes of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” which they ruled with brutality before their defeat in late 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition.
However, terrorists cells still stage sporadic attacks on the army and police, especially in rural and remote areas.
A United Nations report published in July said Daesh has “between 5,000 and 7,000 members across Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, most of whom are fighters.”