Baghdad : Islamic State militants have ambushed a group of Iraq’s Shiite-led paramilitary fighters, killing at least 27.
The Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militias, said on Monday that the attack took place the previous night in the al-Saadounya area, southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, when the paramilitaries were conducting overnight raids, reports AP.
The PMF says the attackers were disguised in army uniforms. It says clashes lasted for at least two hours and that some of the militants were killed while others fled the area. Brig Gen Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for Iraqi military, blamed IS “sleeper cells” and said Iraqi forces were searching the area to find the perpetrators. IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Aamaq news agency.
Iraq to deport suspected French jihadist who served sentence
Baghdad : An Iraqi court ordered the release and deportation of a suspected French jihadist sentenced on Monday to seven months in prison for entering the country illegally, saying she had already served her time.
Melina Bougedir, 27, was arrested last summer in former Islamic State group stronghold Mosul with her four children, three of whom have been repatriated to France.
Wearing a black dress and purple headscarf, she entered the courtroom holding her other child, a boy with blond hair. Speaking in Arabic, she said that she had been a housewife in Mosul. “I entered Syria with my French passport but Daesh (IS) took it from me. I stayed in Syria for four days and then came to Mosul with my husband and four children”. She said that her French husband Maximilien, whom she said had been a cook for IS, was killed as Iraqi forces battled to oust the jihadist group from Mosul, which was recaptured last July, reports AFP. Asked her if she regretted what she did, she replied: “Yes”. Iraq in December declared victory against IS after a years-long battle to retake large swathes of territory the extremists had seized in 2014.
An Iraqi court last month condemned a German woman to death by hanging after finding her guilty of belonging to IS, the first such sentence in a case involving a European woman.