Daesh leader gets death sentence

Al Ithawi, deputy to Al Baghdadi, was extradited from Turkey earlier this year

An Iraqi court yesterday sentenced a prominent terrorist described as a deputy of Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi to death on terrorism charges.

“The Karkh criminal court in Baghdad sentenced to death by hanging one of the most prominent leaders of IS [Daesh], who served as a deputy of [Al] Baghdadi,” judicial spokesman Abdul Sattar Bayraqdar said.

Esmail Alwan Salman Al Ithawi was extradited from Turkey earlier this year having fled Syria as the group’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumbled.

He was tracked and detained through cooperation between Turkish, Iraqi and US intelligence agencies, a senior Iraqi official told AFP in February.

Daesh ‘minister’

A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Al Ithawi was accused of holding several positions, including Daesh “minister” in charge of religious edicts.

Iraq declared “victory” over Daesh in December after a three-year war against the terrorists who once controlled nearly one third of the country as well as swathes of neighbouring Syria.

Al Baghdadi has been pronounced dead on several occasions, but an Iraqi intelligence official said in May that he remained alive in Syrian territory by the Iraqi border.

The Daesh chief called on Muslims to wage “war” in a purported new audio recording released last month.

Meanwhile, at least six police officers were killed on Tuesday and eight were wounded in two bomb attacks in Iraq’s Saladin province, a day after government forces launched an operation against militants in the area, officials said.

Police Lt. Col. Mohamed Ali Ebrahim said the first explosive device killed five officers and wounded four as they were travelling in a police vehicle in the Al Fatha area, 50km north of the provincial capital Tikrit, Efe news reported.

In the second incident, one policeman was killed and four were injured by an explosive device at a guard post at a water treatment plant in Al Shirqat.

Iraqi security forces have recently carried out several operations in Saladin province against alleged cells of the Daesh organisation.

The security forces on Monday began the latest push to clear militants out of the Tigris river basin from Al Fatha to Al Shirqat where attacks have lately been on the rise.