MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2020) The Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia) has scaled up activities in Iraq in the past few months, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in an interview with Sputnik.
"Unfortunately, the IS terrorist group still exists and it has become more active, compared to the situation we saw several months ago. We know that the group is present in certain areas in the provinces of Anbar, Kirkuk and Diyala, and certain areas in the Nineveh [province]," Hussein said.
"We have IS members who are citizens of different countries [jailed in Iraq]," Husein added.
The Iraqi government maintains contact with Western European nations on their citizens who joined the IS and staged terror attacks in Iraq, the foreign minister noted.
Baghdad declared final victory over the IS in late 2017. At the same time, the Iraqi armed forces, supported by people's militia and the international coalition, continue purges and operations to identify sleeping cells of terrorist groups in certain areas.
