ISIS makes comeback in Iraq

ISIS has switched to guerrilla attacks to undermine govt

Baquba ( Iraq), July 24: ( Reuters) Months after Iraq declared victory over Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, its fighters are making a comeback with a scattergun campaign of kidnap and killing.

With its dream of a Caliphate in the Middle East now dead, ISIS has switched to hit- and- run attacks aimed at undermining the government in Baghdad, according to military, intelligence and government officials interviewed by Reuters.

ISIS was reinventing itself months before Baghdad announced in December that it had defeated the group, according to intelligence officials who said it would adopt guerrilla tactics when it could no longer hold territory.

Iraq has now seen an increase in kidnappings and killings, mainly in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Salahuddin, since it held an election in May, indicating the government will come under renewed pressure from a group that once occupied a third of the country during a three- year reign of terror.

Last month saw at least 83 cases of kidnap, murder or both in the three provinces. Most occurred on a highway connecting Baghdad to Kirkuk province. In May, the number of such incidents in that area was 30, while in March it was seven, according to Hisham al- Hashimi, an expert on Islamic State who advises the Iraqi government.

In one incident on June 17, three Shia men were kidnapped by Islamic State militants disguised as policemen at a checkpoint on the highway. Ten days later their mutilated corpses were discovered, rigged with explosives to kill anyone who found them.

Speaking in Kerbala, Bassem Khudair, a relative of the men, said security forces were uncooperative.