Election threat as ISIL sleeper cells mount deadly attacks in northern Iraq

▶ Third delivery of aid reaches besieged Douma as Syrian regime forces enter key town in rebel enclave

ISIL has carried out a series of deadly attacks in northern Iraq that are being attributed to the group’s use of sleeper cells in an offensive that could disrupt the country’s elections.

The violence – at least 25 civilians and government fighters have been killed since Sunday – is centred around Kirkuk province, where the insurgents established checkpoints on the main road to Baghdad.

The rise in attacks indicate that despite no longer controlling large areas of territory, ISIL is far from a spent force in Iraq, undermining the government’s claim that the group has been defeated.

In December, Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared final victory over ISIL, after national security forces recaptured the last main areas controlled by the group.

But previously dormant fighters now appear to be mounting a campaign to undermine the nation’s parliamentary elections in May.

“There are terrorist activities ongoing around Kirkuk, and on the Baghdad road,” a senior police officer told The National, recounting suicide car bombs, raids, the assassinations of people close to the government or security forces, and fake checkpoints.

The government has largely retained control of the country this year but other liberated areas such as Salahaddin and

Nearly 20,000 civilians fled Eastern Ghouta on Thursday as Syrian government troops entered a key town in the rebel enclave near Damascus.

“Regime forces assaulted Hammuriyeh and were able to control parts of it” in the south of the enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Residents – most of them women and children – fled on foot, in cars and on motorcycles via the town of Hammuriyeh, where the Syrian army had opened a corridor, AFP reported. They reached a government-held checkpoint in Adra.

According to the UK-based Observatory, nearly 20,000 civilians fled Eastern Ghouta on Thursday. It was the first major move from the territory after nearly four weeks of intense bombardment by government forces and Russia and came as the Syrian civil war entered its eighth year.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that a convoy carrying food aid entered the rebel enclave on Thursday and was headed to Douma – the largest town in Ghouta. The convoy of 25 lorries was carrying food parcels and flour bags for more than 26,000 people.

“This is just a little of what these families need,” the ICRC said.

It was the third delivery of aid to reach Douma in 10 days. Aid deliveries, carried out jointly by the ICRC, Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations, need permission from all warring sides in Ghouta.

On February 18, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad – backed by Russian air support – launched an assault on Eastern Ghouta, the last opposition bastion outside the capital, Damascus.

Syrian troops have seized more than 60 per cent of Ghouta since the offensive, which split the enclave into three sections, each controlled by different rebels. The area around Hammuriyeh is controlled by the Faylaq Al Rahman faction.

More than 1,220 civilians – a fifth of them children – have been killed since the launch of the offensive.

Moscow on Thursday said it was committed to helping the Assad government “finish off” rebels in Eastern Ghouta.

Russia has provided few details of its involvement in the offensive on Ghouta, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday left no doubt Moscow’s forces were taking an active part.

“We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support,” he said.

Meanwhile, Turkish-backed forces launched a bombardment of Syria’s Kurdish-held Afrin and closed in on the main city in an offensive that could redraw the map in north Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s spokesman said on Thursday that Mr Cavusoglu’s planned visit to Washington on March 19 has been postponed. He did not give a reason for the decision.

The announcement followed US President Donald Trump’s call to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

Turkey has been angered by Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against ISIL. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Ankara said it would flush out the Kurdish militia from the centre of Afrin “in a very short time”, as pro-Turkey forces surrounded the city.

“The circle is closing in around the terrorists.

“We anticipate that the centre of Afrin will be cleared of terrorists in a very short time, God willing in the coming days,” Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.

Mr Kalin told state broadcaster TRT that the offensive, dubbed operation Olive Branch, had secured about 70 per cent of the territory of Afrin district.