ISIS Turban dies in shooting in Hawija, Kirkuk
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) A member of the Islamic State with an Arab nationality was mysteriously assassinated at the group’s Kirkuk stronghold of Hawija, while the group expelled dozens of civilians local sources said Monday.
Alsumaria News quoted the source saying that the militant was killed on the town’s outskirts, but did not explain how the assassination was carried out. He added that the assassination stoked already heating tensions among members in Hawija, with Arab members accusing local comrades of masterminding the killing.
Meanwhile, another source said the group seized the homes of 60 families in Hawija and forced them to move to farmlands on the town’s outskirts. The source said the militants accused the families of “disloyalty” to the group. He explained that most of the families expelled had some members executed by the Islamic State for various reasons.
“Daesh (Islamic State) is seeking to empty Hawija of families who it suspects of opposing it,” said the source.
Hawija and other neighboring areas in southwest Kirkuk have been under Islamic State control since 2014, when the group emerged to proclaim an Islamic “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. The group executed dozens of civilians and security members there, forcing thousands to flee homes.
Three weeks ago, Alsumaria News quoted sources saying that IS had opened alternative headquarters for its so-called “Nineveh State, “Dijlah State”, “Salahuddin State” and “Diyala State” in Hawija. He said senior leaders had entered the town in armored vehicles after having fled battles with security forces in Nineveh.
2 Kaliphate Kidz die in work accident al-Mutaibija
Mutaibija (IraqiNews.com) Two members of the Islamic State’s so-called “Cubs of the Caliphate” were killed as a booby-trapped cooking pot exploded in al-Mutaibija region, on borders between Salahuddin and Diyala provinces, a local source said.
Speaking to AlSumaria News on Monday, the source said, “two members of the so-called ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’ were killed as a booby-trapped cooking pot exploded while being transferred from one of the group’s rest houses in Mutaibija to be placed on a road.”
“Several IS cubs were recently transferred from Hawija to Mutaibija to boost the group’s capabilities,” the source, who preferred anonymity said. The group, according to the source, “now depends on different methods to manufacture bombs using pots and plastic bottles in different sizes.”
Founded by the group, the Cubs of the Caliphate is formed of teenagers to either transfer explosives or commit suicide attacks.
Occasional attacks have been witnesses in Mutaibija by Islamic State against government and paramilitary troops deployments since Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and PMUs, launched a major offensive to retake areas occupied by IS since 2014, most notably the city of Mosul.