Kirkuk (Iraqinews.com) – Islamic State (IS) group claimed that its militants killed and injured 103 government troops within a month in different Iraqi cities.

In an online statement, a copy of which was obtained by IKH News, the militant group said, “Another 13 Iraqi troops were taken captive during the period from February 19 to March 21.”

The militant group further claimed that its insurgents destroyed 12 armored vehicles and an oil tank during the aforementioned period.

Despite the victory over IS last year, observers say the militant group is still constituting a security threat even after the group’s defeat at its main havens across Iraqi provinces.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December with the help of a US-led alliance, having retaken all the territory captured by the extremists in 2014 and 2015.

Isolated cells believed to be linked to the Islamic State group remain active in some parts of the country. In recent weeks, suspected Islamic State insurgents have carried out several attacks targeting security forces in the areas north-west of Kirkuk.

The Islamic State group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” from Mosul city. Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it. </s> The elusive chief of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has appeared for the first time in five years in a propaganda video released by the armed group.

ISIL's Al Furqan media network published on Monday what it said was a video message from its leader, in which he said the group would seek revenge for the killing and imprisonment of its fighters.

It was unclear when the footage was filmed but al-Baghdadi referred in the past tense to the months-long fight for Baghouz, ISIL's final bastion in eastern Syria, that ended last month.

"The battle for Baghouz is over," said the ISIL leader with a bushy grey beard and an assault weapon close by, sitting cross-legged on a cushion and addressing three men whose faces had been blurred.

Wearing a black robe with a beige vest, al-Baghdadi gave an 18-minute address.

The SITE Intelligence group said he also discussed the bombings in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people on Easter Sunday in an audio recording after the video ends.

"Your brothers in Sri Lanka have healed the hearts of monotheists [ISIL members] with their suicide bombings, which shook the beds of the crusaders during Easter to avenge your

brothers in Baghouz," he said.

'More to come'

This was his first appearance in a video since delivering a sermon at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, in Mosul, Iraq, in 2014. That speech marked the rise of the group and its self-declared "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria.

In January of the same year, ISIL took the Syrian city of Raqqa as its de-facto capital. By June, the group had also captured Iraq's second city of Mosul, with a population of two million people. It held both cities until 2017.

Grisly public executions were a regular occurrence in ISIL's former areas, including burning people alive and beheadings.

At its peak in January 2015, ISIL controlled an area across Syria and Iraq roughly equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom and had attracted 40,000 fighters to its cause.

With a $25m US bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi is the world's most wanted man. Despite numerous claims about his death in the past few years, his whereabouts remain a mystery.

"Our battle today is a war of attrition to harm the enemy, and they should know that jihad will continue until doomsday," al-Baghdadi said in the video.

The written script at the start of the video dated it to earlier in April. The authenticity and date of the recording could not be independently verified.

Al-Baghdadi has periodically issued audio statements. His last voice recording to supporters was released in August 2018 - eight months after Iraq announced it had defeated ISIL and US-backed forces closed in on the group in Syria.

In the video published on Monday, he insisted ISIL's operations against the West were part of a "long battle" and the group would "take revenge" for its members who had been killed.

"There will be more to come after this battle," said al-Baghdadi, apparently referring to the final fight in Baghouz.

The 'caliphate'

Over the years, several armed groups outside the Middle East, including in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, have pledged allegiance to ISIL, claiming devastating attacks on both civilians and security personnel.

The United Nations in 2016 said at least 34 groups from around the world had pledged allegiance to the group.

Judit Neurink, journalist and author of The War of ISIS: On the Road to the Caliphate, said the video would send an important message to ISIL's fighters that al-Baghdadi was "still there" at the head of the group.

"ISIS want to show Sri Lanka was how 'we are going to be, we are going to be everywhere, no longer in Iraq and Syria, but all these different places where you have to watch out for us, all our people are going to attack in different places, the global jihad is a fact'," Neurink added.

Nader Hashemi from the University of Denver said al-Baghdadi is trying to capitalize on the Sri Lanka massacre to draw attention to ISIL's continued threat despite its defeat in the Middle East.

"This is also a huge embarrassment for Donald Trump's administration. Just a few weeks ago, Trump was claiming, 'mission accomplished' and 'the war is over'. This video clearly sends a message to the Americans - and Trump in particular - that the head of the organisation is very much alive," Hashemi told Al Jazeera. </s> Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces on Tuesday arrested an Islamic State member who, they claim, was behind several ambushes in which security personnel had been killed in the latest period.

Alsumaria News quoted a security source saying that “security forces arrested 11 Islamic State terrorists, including Abu Suleiman al-Afri, who had been responsible for erecting fake checkpoints on the Kirkuk-Baghdad road”.

The source, who asked not to be named, said troops found maps and drafts of attack schemes for the group.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State militants in December, ending a three-year war to retake areas occupied by the militants in 2014.

Though the government said the group’s territorial influence came to an end, the militants have launched occasional attacks against security forces and civilians, growing fears that it might still pose a security threat.

News reports have said the group had set up several ambushes in which security forces were attacked.

In mid February, the group ambushed several Popular Mobilization Forces members in Saadouniya, Kirkuk, leaving 27 dead. After the attack, Iraqi forces launched offensives to clear remnant militant cells in the province. </s> Baku. 10 March. REPORT.AZ/ Iraqi army seized control of large areas in Anbar province and killed 350 suspected Daesh militants within four days of its ongoing operation in the area, the Iraqi military said in statement late Monday.

According to the Iraqi army’s Military Operations Command, Iraqi armed forces launched an operation on al-Karma area four days back, which also destroyed 20 heavy machine guns and 20 vehicles; 382 improvised explosive devices were also dismantled, the statement added.

Major-General Qasem al-Mohammadi said that the Iraqi army, backed by al-Hashid al-Sha’bi Shia militia and the Iraqi air forces, took over al-Kanater and al-Rashad areas and three villages in eastern Falluja in al-Karma area.

Al-Karma police chief Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Ibrahim al-Halbousi and Daesh commander Wisam Hussein al-Ezzawi were also killed in clashes Monday, Major-General Kazem al-Fahdawi, Anbar’s police chief, told AA.

Abu Jasim Duleymi, a leading figure in Anbar’s Fallujah city, said Monday that the bodies of 103 suspected Daesh militants were taken to Fallujah General Hospital. Duleymi also said that the militant Daesh-controlled hospital received a total of 47 injured militants.

"Daesh buried the bodies of its militants in mass cemeteries in Fallujah and non-Iraqi doctors are treating the injured militants," he added.

The figures provided by the officials could not be independently verified because of limited access to free media in the region.

Clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh have been ongoing since June 2014 when the armed group seized Mosul and other territories in Iraq.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group. </s> 'Bodies of murdered Iraqis lay in streets' after ISIL shooting, an apparent bid to prevent civilians fleeing, UN says.

Fighters from the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS) group have killed more than 160 people in one day last week to prevent them from fleeing western Mosul, according to the United Nations.

The agency on Tuesday accused ISIL of carrying out the attack in the group's last stronghold, where a coalition of troops is working to flush out the fighters.

"The brutality of Daesh [ISIL] and other terrorist groups seemingly knows no bounds," said Zeid bin Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN's human rights chief.

"Yesterday, my staff reported to me that bodies of murdered Iraqi men, women and children still lay on the streets of the al-Shira neighbourhood of western Mosul, after at least 163 people were shot and killed by Daesh to prevent them from fleeing."

Hussein made the comments in his opening address to the UN Human Rights Council.

His spokesman, Rupert Colville, told the AFP news agency that the killings were believed to have taken place on June 1.

In late May, Iraqi forces launched a broad assault on parts of Mosul, closing in on the remaining pockets of territory held by ISIL.

Aid groups had expressed their concerns over the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of being caught in the crossfire.

On Monday, UNICEF warned that 100,000 children were still in ISIL-held areas, living under extremely dangerous conditions.

Peter Hawkins, UNICEF's representative in Iraq, said the agency is receiving "alarming reports" of civilians being killed, including children, with some caught in the crossfire while trying to flee.

Separately, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that at least 26 bodies of "blindfolded and handcuffed" men were found in government-controlled areas and around the city since the operation started.

READ MORE: UN envoy: Liberation of Mosul from ISIL is 'imminent'

Local armed forces told foreign journalists that 15 men were extrajudicially killed by government forces who were holding them on suspicion of being affiliated with ISIL, the rights group said.

HRW said that in the remaining cases reported by local and international sources, the sites of the apparent executions - all in government-held territory - raise concerns about government responsibility for the killings.

Last month, Stephen O'Brien, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, said the organisation had "deep concern" for hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind ISIL lines.

"Although the UN is not present in the areas where fighting is occurring, we have received very disturbing reports of families being shut inside booby-trapped homes and of children being deliberately targeted by snipers," O'Brien said.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air raids have since regained much of the territory they lost to the group.

Iraqi forces launched a major operation to retake Mosul in October last year, fighting their way to the city and retaking its eastern side before setting their sights on its smaller but more densely populated west.

The eastern half of Mosul was declared liberated in January and the push for the city's western section, separated from the east by the Tigris River, began the following month.

Almost 10,000 people fled from Mosul's northwest and the Old City every day last week, according to UN estimates.

More than 750,000 people have been displaced from the city since October. </s> Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the blasts that took place, north of Tikrit, which left many people killed and injured.

The media-arm of IS, Amaq news agency, said 17 personnel of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) were killed, while 30 others were wounded in an ambush at Asdeira village in Shirqat town.

On Thursday, Ali Dawdah, mayor of Shirqat, said in a statement, “ten people were killed, while 14 others were wounded as explosives went off while digging tombs, on Wednesday night. The bombs were planted in a grave in Asdeira village in western Shirqat, north of Salahuddin.”

Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.

A total of 104 Iraqi civilians and policemen were killed, while 177 others were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in March, according to casualty figures by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Thousands of IS militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.

In December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members. </s> Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A group of Islamic State militants executed on Monday six people, including two pro-government fighters, a few hours after kidnapping them in Mosul city.

“IS militants wearing Iraqi military uniforms set up a fake checkpoint on the road linking between Ein el-Azab village in Al-Shirqat district and al-Hadar Island in southern Mosul,” Captain Abdel Khaleq al-Eifan from the Iraqi rapid response forces told Turkey’s news agency Anadolu.

The IS terrorists managed to kidnap six people, including four workers and two members of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) after examining their IDs, Captain al-Eifan said.

The bodies of the six people were found at a desert area a few hours after the kidnapping, he said, adding that the victims were found shackled and shot in their heads and backs, meaning that they were executed by the IS militants.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December with the help of a US-led alliance, having retaken all the territory captured by the extremists in 2014 and 2015.

Despite the group’s crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country. </s> Six ISIL terrorists were killed during security operations in northern Iraq, the Security Press Center said Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the center, Brigadier General Yahya Resul, said the ISIL members were killed by Iraqi security forces affiliated with the army and police during operations backed by the Iraqi Air Force in Saladin governorate's administrative center, Tikrit.

Tikrit is located northwest of the country's capital, Baghdad.

Although Baghdad says the territory was cleared of ISIL last December, sleeper cells of the terrorist organization sometimes carry out attacks.

ISIL overran vast swathes of northern and western Iraq in mid-2014. But its military presence was largely destroyed late last year following a nine-month campaign by the Iraqi army centered on the northern city of Mosul. </s> GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field.

IS also tried to transport about 25,000 civilians from Hammam al-Alil, a town south of Mosul, on dozens of trucks and minibuses during the hours of darkness early on Monday, probably for use as human shields in defense of IS positions, she said.

Most of the trucks, which were heading toward the Tal Afar district, turned back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, but some buses did reach Abu Saif, 15 km (10 miles) north of Hammam al-Alil, she said.

“We have grave concerns for these and tens of thousands of other civilians who have reportedly been forcibly relocated by ISIL (Islamic State) in the past two weeks,” she said.

IS fighters were taking people closer and closer to Mosul city and putting them close to their offices and to installations that could constitute military targets, Shamdasani said.

“That seems to support the assertion that they are planning to use these people as human shields, as well as ensuring that the area is heavily populated with civilians to frustrate a military operation against them,” she said.

“They are also killing some people that they are abducting, especially people who formerly belonged to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

The 40 former Iraqi soldiers killed on Saturday were among civilians who had been abducted earlier from the al-Shura sub-district of Mosul and from villages around Hammam al-Alil.

There may be many more, Shamdasani said, adding that the U.N.’s reports were “raw information” from reliable sources and were by no means comprehensive.

Although there would be a “temptation for revenge” against captured IS fighters, the U.N. had not documented any such abuses, and it welcomed the Iraqi government’s pledge to put protection of civilians at the heart of their strategy, Shamdasani said.

She also said there were no reports of coalition air strikes killing civilians, including those people being held as human shields.
ISIL releases a statement claiming responsibility for killing or wounding 103 Iraqi soldiers within one month. The group also claims to have abducted 13 more soldiers, and destroyed 12 armoured vehicles.