IS activities in Iraq
In April 2023, attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants take place continuously in various parts of the country, although in April they were less active.
On April 3, IS fighters who came from the Khanaqin district, Diyala province, attacked the city of Kifri in the same province.
On April 10, Iraqi government forces launched a large-scale security operation in the Jazirat al-Eis district of Salah al-Din province. Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia and army troops combed the districts of Albu-Hammash, Tel Hussein, Al-Maleh and Ar-Rajhiyat
On April 11, the Iraqi Armed Forces announced the defeat of a terrorist cell in Diyala province.
On April 13, Iraqi security forces arrested four terrorists in Salah al-Din province.
On April 16, the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency announced the arrest of four IS militants in Ninewa province. The day before, two more militants were captured in Ninewa and Anbar provinces.
On April 18, the military arrested two terrorists who admitted to participating in terrorist activities in recent years, including blowing up explosive devices and destroying power transmission towers in Diyala province.
The UN “expressed concern” over the rapid closure of a camp for displaced persons by Iraqi authorities. That camp housed more than 300 families associated with IS. The United Nations office in Baghdad said that the abolishment of the Jada'a 5 facility in the northern city of Qayyarah was carried out without “proper notice or preparation.” Humanitarian groups opposed the closure, fearing that vulnerable families, including many women and children, would find it difficult to reintegrate in their hometowns and be stigmatized for their perceived or real association with IS fighters. Camp residents said they feared violence from militias and local tribes if they return to their homes.
It is known that Baghdad at the end of 2020 began implementing a policy of closing camps for displaced persons throughout the country, hoping that this will speed up the restoration of the state after its devastation during hostilities. Since then, most of these facilities have been abolished, with the exception of those in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as Jada'a 1 in Qayyarah, which houses IS-linked prisoners who were previously detained in the Syrian al-Hawl camp.
About 40 Russian women sentenced to prison terms for “involvement in terrorism” went on a hunger strike on April 25 to protest against “fake charges.” Those are the wives of IS militants, including those who were sentenced in 2018 to long terms up to life imprisonment. All of them are now being held in the Baghdad’s Rusafa prison for women. According to the prisoners themselves, they never took any part in the preparation or implementation of terrorist acts, stating that “they all testified under pressure from the security services.” The prisoners, who did not agree with their sentences and were dissatisfied with the living conditions in the correctional facility, also wrote an official appeal to the prison administration demanding better conditions for their detention.
In total, 500 prisoners in the Rusafa prison went on a mass hunger strike in protest against the sentences received. Among them, in addition to citizens of the Russian Federation, citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Those are the wives of IS members who were sentenced to terms up to life for aiding terrorism and illegally crossing the border. “We demand to review our cases in court, release the innocent ones and repatriate us to our home countries. We were unfairly convicted of terrorism, we did not take any part in the hostilities,” the convicted women claim.