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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least ten suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) were arrested by Iraqi counterterrorism forces in numerous operations, mostly across areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, state media reported on Thursday.
'A series of qualitative operations were carried out in various areas of the country, which resulted in the arrest of 10 terrorist elements belonging to ISIS terrorist gangs in the Diyala, Salahaddin, Nineveh, and Kirkuk provinces,' state media said, citing an Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (ICTS) statement.
Five more ISIS suspects - three in Anbar and two in 'different areas' - were arrested by the ICTS, the statement added, with an additional suspect captured in collaboration with Kurdish forces in the Kurdistan Region's Sulaimani province.
Days prior, two 'dangerous terrorists' were arrested by Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Sulaimani.
Six hideouts were destroyed in the vast western deserts of Anbar, a hotspot of ISIS remnants, according to the ICTS.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called 'caliphate.'
While the group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2019 respectively, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert and several Iraqi provinces situated in a security vacuum between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region.
On Thursday, a Baghdad court handed a death sentence to an ISIS member 'who participated in armed terrorist attacks and the crime of kidnapping Yazidis in Sinjar district in 2014.'
Despite the threats, Iraqi authorities stress that attacks by ISIS have largely simmered down.
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