ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS) on Tuesday arrested two alleged Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated individuals in Sulaimani and conducted a series of search and destroy operations in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.

In coordination with Sulaimani’s General Directorate of Counter-Terrorism, the ICTS was able to “arrest two (2) terrorists in Sulaimani province,” according to a statement released by the service.

Meanwhile, the forces also conducted a series of operations that involved “wide-scale searches, reconnaissance duties, setting up ambushes, and raiding hideouts” belonging to suspected ISIS-affiliated individuals across Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahaddin.

The operations resulted in the destruction of a number of reported ISIS hideouts belonging to the remnants of the organization in the region, as well as the “detonation of explosive devices and a collection of materials prepared for detonation,” the statement said.

ISIS took over large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014, announcing its so-called “caliphate” in the Iraqi city of Mosul after a blistering offensive. The jihadists were territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017, with the help of a US-led global coalition. Their defeat in Syria came two years later.

However, its sleeper cells continue to pose a threat to Iraq’s national security, and Iraqi and Kurdish forces routinely carry out operations to arrest the group’s remnants across the country.

Iraqi security forces arrested over 500 terror suspects in 2024, according to data from the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS).