ISIS is intensifying attacks in Iraq in conjunction with Corona

The sources revealed, and some of them are local officials in those areas, that the attacks by the militants target the security elements, their patrols and the heavily stationed points, as well as those cooperating with the security forces and the local tribal crowd leaders.

Security sources told Al-Hurra that intense activity of ISIS mercenaries had been recorded in seven areas along the border between Salah El-Din Governorate and Diyala, in addition to the Hamrin hills and north of Al-Sharqat.

"The terrorist elements are taking advantage of the curfew, the security forces are busy distributing aid and imposing sanitary measures to expand their operations," said a senior Iraqi army official, who preferred not to be named.

"The security forces, including the PMF, recorded about fifty attacks and ISIS movements in just the past two weeks, up from only about twenty attacks throughout the past January and February," the official added to Al-Hurra.

These areas are almost empty of the population after their residents were displaced during the military operations against ISIS, and the residents were not returned to them, as mercenary elements move between the deserted villages on the banks of the Tigris River freely, in addition to being able to establish tunnels, transport channels and warehouses with numerous shelters, according to those sources.

The Iraqi Digital Media Center pointed to the return of ISIS mercenary activity on social media platforms, and an increase in the numbers of the accounts of its supporters. According to a statement by the center, the numbers of the accounts of ISIS members and their supporters on social media platforms, especially Facebook, have grown and increased, and this return came during the past months that accompanied Corona pandemic.

The center said that this timing has delayed Facebook's response to requests to delete accounts whose owners took advantage of this, and published and promoted their terrorist operations through the platform.

The center warned users of networking sites "against interacting with these posts even if they criticize them through comments or share them, which leads to unintentionally free promotion."

"The terrorist organizations are exploiting the spread of the Corona pandemic to expand their activities," said the Israeli Jerusalem Post on Thursday, citing the ISIS mercenaries' intensification of their attacks in the African country of Chad, which is struggling to contain the spread of the Corona virus.

During this week, ISIS mercenaries launched attacks in most of the border areas between Naftkhana and Jalula in Diyala to Hawija in Kirkuk, and the security forces are trying to control the organization's movements in those areas.

The Iraqi security forces raided some of those hideouts, but there is a high risk accompanying the security moves that are taking place on a limited scale. Last week, ISIS mercenaries blew up a tunnel in the Hamrin hills, which an officer and six soldiers of the Federal Police entered to search for the elements of the organization, and killed them all.

J.O