Latest Updates On Iraq, 19 September 2023

1- Baghdad:
The Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) announced the demolition of a dangerous terrorist group in capital Baghdad and the arrest of its elements. The members of this terrorist team, who were elements of the ISIS terrorist group, intended to carry out suicide operations in Mawakibs (special makeshift places for providing pilgrims of Imam Hussain’s holy shrine with necessary items particularly during Arbaeen pilgrimage), police centers, checkpoints, and markets in Baghdad.

2- Sulaymaniyah:
On September 18, a Turkish drone targeted the Arbat airport located in Sulaymaniyah city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which left at least three people dead and three others injured.

3- Al Anbar:
Some tribal leaders and commanders of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Al Anbar Governorate of Iraq announced that this western province is not ready to accept anti-Iranian armed groups.

4- Kirkuk:
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command declared the destruction of a hideout belonging to the ISIS terrorist group by F-16 fighter jets of the Iraqi army in the operational environment of Kirkuk Governorate.

5- The Al-Rusafa Central Criminal Court issued a death sentence for the perpetrator of the 2022 explosion in Al-Taji rural town (north of Baghdad), which took place on the route of Samarra’s pilgrims. According to the announcement of the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, the perpetrator of the explosion, who was a member of the ISIS terrorist group, filmed the aftermath of the blast following the terrorist incident.  

6- Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics of Iran Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani referred to a security agreement between Tehran and Baghdad on disarming and expelling of terrorists from Iraqi Kurdistan region, saying that the Islamic Republic does not accept any extension of the deadline for the implementation of the accord; so, we will act based on the security agreement in due time.

7- An informed source in the government of Kurdistan region of Iraq claimed in an interview with Deutsche Welle (Germany’s state-owned international broadcaster) that after three decades, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (HDK) has left its main headquarters in Koy Sanjaq also known as “Democrat Castle”.