BAGHDAD (XINHUA) – The Iraqi National Security Service (INSS) announced that it had dismantled an Islamic State (IS) cell and arrested six IS militants, including the group’s leader in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, in the northern province of Kirkuk.
Acting on intelligence reports and in coordination with regional Kurdish security forces, Iraqi security personnel raided a safehouse where seven IS militants were gathering in the namesake provincial capital, Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, the INSS said in a statement.
The statement added that a clash broke out between the two sides during the raid, which led to the suicide of one of the terrorists and the arrest of the other six.
