Commander: Iraqi forces kill, arrest 12 Islamic State members in Mosul

On Tuesday Baghdad Today quoted Emad al-Bayati, head of the army’s Nineveh Operations’ media, announcing that Iraqi border security troops engaged with the Islamic State militants at Yaaribi border area with Syria, killed seven of them and arrested five others after setting up an ambush in Northwest of Mosul. He also added that the troops seized the militants’ weapons and took the arrested ones for interrogation. Since early July, Iraqi security forces have launched efforts to clear the city of Mosul from dormant IS cells and occasionally sustained attacks from militants, arresting others among refugees. Indeed, Mosul was the birthplace of “Caliphate”, the Islamic State’s self-styled, founded by the group’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared its establishment in a famous sermon from Mosul’s Grand Nuri Mosque. Since then, Iraqi army backed by a U.S.-led coalition, took over Mosul from Islamic State militants ending more than eight months of operations. The war against IS has so far displaced at least five million people. Iraq forces are currently working on seizing back the group’s last haven in Iraq: the Western city of Anbar Rawa on the borders with Syria.