Battle of sleeping cells in Iraq: Serious statements or media show?

Mohamed Shaat

The Iraqi security services continue their efforts to root out terrorism from the country, especially after the detection of sleeping cells during the recent period. Terrorist elements carried out terrorist operations, most recently a car bomb explosion west of Mosul, killing and wounding dozens. That returned tension to the street after a period of relative calm.

In the wake of these security efforts, a terrorist cell was dismantled in the province of Nineveh, and one of its elements was arrested west of Mosul. The security forces managed to reach the cell, dismantle it, arrest one of its members and seize weapons and other materials west of Mosul.

Intelligence battle

The head of Iraq’s parliament, Mohamed Halboussi, said in a statement issued by his office on Tuesday that the next battle with terrorism is an intelligence battle to hunt down sleeping cells.

The statement came days after the announcement of the Directorate of Military Intelligence about the dismantling of a terrorist cell and the arrest of its elements in the Karma district of Anbar province in western Iraq.

The Iraqi military intelligence revealed details of the dismantling of the terrorist cell, stating in a statement that the security forces managed to lure them to ambush, and arrested all members, who are wanted under the provisions of Article 4, but the statement did not disclose the number of members of the cell and their nationalities.

According to a previous statement of the Iraqi Security Information Center, there is security cooperation with the Kurdistan region of Iraq. After this cooperation, the devices succeeded in arresting one of the sleeping terrorist cells of Daesh within the framework of inspections and clearance and the prosecution of remnants of the organization.

The Iraqi security center said that based on the information of the national security apparatus in the province of Kirkuk, and in coordination with the security authorities in the province of Sulaymaniyah, one of the most important cities of the Kurdistan region, one of the Daesh elements was arrested, according to a judicial warrant issued against him.

Expired statements

The Iraqi political analyst Anmar al-Darubi said in a statement to the Reference that the statement issued by Mohammed al-Halbusi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, on the intelligence plan to confront the sleeping terrorist cells in Iraq is not new, and comes in the context of consuming statements of Iraqi officials.

Al-Droubi added that such statements remain mere statements on the ground, pointing out that the Iraqis are fed up with such statements, which do not exceed the media consumption only.

The Iraqi political analyst said that the face of terrorism needs an integrated strategic plan, and the security and intelligence confrontation alone will not succeed in eliminating such cells, so if the Iraqi government is serious in its war on terrorism and the elimination of these sleeping cells, the incubator of Daesh should first be eliminated.