An Iraqi policeman was kidnapped and executed by jihadists from the Islamic State terrorist group.
The Iraqi authorities announced on Wednesday the death of a police officer, two weeks after his kidnapping by the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group in the east of the country.
On its Telegram channels, the IS published Tuesday evening photos presented as those of the decapitated victim, after his “abduction” in the region of Hamrine.
Colonel Yasser al-Jourani was kidnapped in mid-December with two friends in this region of Hamrine where they were hunting, a security source told AFP.
On Twitter, the spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the army offered his condolences for the assassination of the officer. “We will pursue terrorists to bring justice and avenge our martyrs,” he wrote.
“The commander-in-chief wants to continue the intelligence gathering and the offensive strategy to eliminate” ISIS, he wrote.
As for the colonel’s two hunting companions, the first was found shot dead and the second seriously injured after being tortured, before succumbing to his wounds, according to the security source.
10,000 active combatants
In recent days, the security forces have announced a vast campaign in the mountainous region of Hamrine, where the jihadists remain very active in the province of Diyala.
In three days, the operations accompanied by airstrikes killed “five Daesh agents”, an Arabic acronym for ISIS, and led to the discovery of several “terrorist caches” containing bombs and weapons, according to a press release. a joint cell of the security forces.
“Two bodies of two kidnapped people were found,” said the statement without identifying the victims.
After occupying from 2014 to 2017 vast territories in Syria and Iraq, ISIS has continued to reverse it.
Iraq declared its victory against ISIS at the end of 2017. But the jihadists continue to carry out ad hoc attacks against the security forces, especially in the north.
Today, the organization “maintains a largely clandestine presence in Iraq and Syria and leads a sustained insurgency on both sides of the border between the two countries”, according to a UN report published in 2021.
In these two countries, the jihadist organization would retain “in all 10,000 active combatants”, according to this report.
The last major attack claimed by ISIS in Iraq in July targeted a market in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing around 30 people.
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