Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service arrests Daesh ‘administrative chief’ at Baghdad airport
Members of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) have captured a high-ranking figure of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group after he arrived at Baghdad International Airport.
CTS spokesman Sabah al-Noaman told AFP that the man, identified by his nom de guerre as Abu Naba, was detained in October as he was “getting into a taxi, just after landing in Baghdad.”
Noaman described Abu Naba as a “major target,” noting that he had been steering financial support to Daesh, organizing meetings and relaying messages between members of the terror group.
“He began his Takfiri path in 2003 with al-Qaeda, before joining various groups that eventually led to Daesh,” he said.
Noaman, however, refused to reveal Abu Naba's real identity, where he had been flying in from and how he managed to cross through airport security before he was apprehended.
The “administrative chief” of Daesh has remained in police custody and is being interrogated since his arrest.
“Abu Naba had been in contact with remaining members of Daesh in Iraq, and we were monitoring their conversations for a long time,” the senior Iraqi security official said.
Noaman said Abu Naba would be tried under Iraq's counter-terror law, which carries death penalty for “membership in a terrorist organization.”
Also on Monday, the spokesman for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasoul, announced the arrest of a senior Daesh leader in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Rasoul said the man, identified by the initials W.F, was captured by Kurdish Asayish security forces in Sulaymaniyah following “constant follow-up and field work.”
Daesh emerged in Iraq in 2014 amid the chaos and ruin that had resulted from the United States invasion of the Arab country.
A bloated US-led coalition began supposedly targeting the terror outfit in Iraq in the same year, but was found to be functioning surprisingly slow in confronting the terrorists.
Daesh soon swept up large swathes of Iraqi territory, prompting Baghdad to solicit military advisory assistance from Iran. The joint anti-terror push, in which counter-terrorism fighters from Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, played a crucial role, defeated Daesh in late 2017.
The group’s remnants, however, keep staging sporadic attacks throughout Iraq.
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