ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – At least 700 “terrorists,” including suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members, have been arrested in the Kurdistan Region’s city of Sulaimani in 2025, Kurdish security forces (Asayish) said on Friday. 

Sulaimani Asayish spokesperson Karzan Sherko said that “716 terrorists were arrested and 11,341 crimes of various causes were recorded” in 2025, with legal measures taken against the suspects. 

“In the past year, 298 operations were carried out to arrest terrorists. Within that framework, 157 ambushes and 15 confrontations took place,” he said.

Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, particularly in Sulaimani and Kirkuk, frequently carry out joint operations against ISIS remnants in the provinces. The operations have increased in recent years. 

ISIS took over large swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014, announcing its so-called “caliphate” in the northern 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. According to the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS), over 500 terror suspects were arrested in 2024 by Iraqi security forces.