Iraqi troops arrest Islamic State’s intelligence official, two others in Kirkuk
Kirkuk (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi troops arrested on Wednesday three members of Islamic State, including a senior intelligence official, during a security campaign in southwestern Kirkuk, a police chief was quoted as saying.
“The 19th brigade launched a security operation in southwestern Kirkuk, arresting three IS terrorists,” Ayn Al Iraq News website quoted Federal Police Chief Raed Shawkat Gawdat as saying.
“Among those arrested was a senior Islamic State intelligence official, who was responsible for providing the terrorists with information about citizens to kidnap them,” Gawdat noted.
Iraqi security forces, backed by paramilitary troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi and Peshmerga fighters, had launched a military operation dubbed Martyrs’ Revenge to chase Islamic State militants at their hotbeds in Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces.
At least 30 persons killed, injured in bomb blasts in Kirkuk
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Over thirty people were killed and injured in several bomb blasts in Kirkuk, according to security sources and the Security Media Center.
Speaking to Mawazin News on Wednesday, the source said, “a blast took place near a restaurant on Baghdad road. Another explosion took place near a store. A third blast took place near Dumeiz region.”
The preliminary results of the blast, according to the source, “left a person killed and eighteen others injured, two of whom were in serious condition.”
In a brief statement, the Interior Ministry’s Security Media Center said “security troops in Kirkuk carried out a wide-scale campaign in search for militants who hurled stun grenades on Rahim Awah-Shurjah road.”
The statement also indicated explosion of three bombs on Baghdad road near a fuel station, which left a civilian wounded.
According to a local police source in Kirkuk, 12 civilians were wounded due to explosions and shooting of mortar missiles near children hospital in center of the province.