Iraqi authorities announced the death of a police officer on Wednesday, two weeks after his kidnapping by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group in the east of the country, reported AFP.
On its Telegram channels, IS published photos purporting to show the decapitated victim, Colonel Yasser al-Jourani, after his “abduction” in the region of Hamrine.
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 Iraqi army offered his condolences for the assassination of the officer.
“The commander-in-chief wants to continue the intelligence gathering and the offensive strategy to eliminate ISIS,” he wrote as he added, “We will pursue terrorists to bring justice and avenge our martyrs.”
In recent days, Iraqi 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 IS agents”, and led to the discovery of several “terrorist caches” containing bombs and weapons, according to a press release.
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.
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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