Iraqi forces arrest senior ISIS financial administrator

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Military Intelligence Directorate announced on Saturday the arrest of Abu Musab, the chief official responsible for distributing financial allowances and support payments to ISIS members and their families within the so-called Wilayat al-Furat, or Euphrates Province, in what authorities described as a swift and specialized security operation.

In a statement, the directorate said that “in a swift and preemptive security operation, units of the Military Intelligence Directorate from the Intelligence and Security Section of the 7th Infantry Division, in cooperation with the Al-Qaim Intelligence and Counterterrorism Section, succeeded in arresting one of the most prominent administrative and financial cadres of the ISIS terrorist organization in Anbar province.”

According to the statement, “the operation, which was based on highly accurate intelligence information, resulted in the arrest of the terrorist known as Abu Musab, the chief official responsible for distributing the so-called kafalat, financial entitlements and support, to ISIS members and their families within the area of the so-called Wilayat al-Furat.”

The statement added that an arrest warrant had been issued against him under Article 4(1) of Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law, and that legal measures had been taken against him.

ISIS remnants and sleeper cells continue to operate covertly primarily in rural and remote areas across several provinces, including Ninevah, Anbar, Salah al-Din and Diyala despite the territorial defeat of the group’s self-declared caliphate in Iraq in 2017.