Iraqi counterterrorism announced Monday, November 23 that it had arrested an Iraqi whose nom de guerre was “Abu Naba”, presented as an important member of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
The man was arrested in October when“He was getting into a taxi after getting off a plane that had just landed in Baghdad”, reports Sabah Al-Noamane, spokesperson for elite counterterrorism units. He did not disclose Abu Naba’s true identity, where his flight came from, and how the man was able to travel while wanted in Iraq.
From Al-Qaida to IS
Abu Naba a “Started his jihadist journey in 2003 with Al-Qaida before joining the various groups which have succeeded one another up to ISIS”, which for a time held nearly a third of Iraq before being wiped out at the end of 2017 after three years of bloody fighting, said Noamane. “He was in contact with ISIS operatives in Iraq and we had been monitoring their conversations for a long time.”, he continues, “Abu Naba took care of financial affairs, sent messages and organized meetings”. “He was the general coordinator” of an organization today dying after having also lost in 2019 its “Caliphate” self-proclaimed territorial in Syria.
The man, in detention since his arrest in October, must appear at the end of interrogations still in progress, under the blow of the anti-terrorism law. He risks the death penalty for simple “Belonging” to an organization “Terrorist”.
Hundreds of death sentences have been handed down in recent years against Iraqis or ISIS foreigners in Iraq, and several hangings have already taken place.
Despite the announcement of victory over the Islamist organization in December 2017, ISIS still carries out attacks – on a much smaller scale than before – in Iraq. A jihadist ambush claimed the lives of ten people north of Baghdad on Saturday, while a dozen days earlier, a grenade attack left eleven dead near the capital.
