MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Iraqi military has captured the so-called finance minister of the Islamic State, known in the Arab world as Daesh and prohibited in numerous countries including Russia and the United States, while liberating the city of Ramadi, the military command’s information service said Tuesday.
After encircling the city for weeks, the Iraqi military launched a campaign to retake Ramadi last week, and made a final push to seize the central administration complex on December 27.
“Residents from Ramadi told security forces that the so-called IS finance minister was hiding in the city among residents and was trying to escape after the terrorists were attacked. He was arrested,” the information service said on its Facebook account.
Earlier on December 28, Iraq's army announced that it had regained full control over the strategically important Anbar province's capital Ramadi. Complete liberation of the Anbar province from Daesh is to be announced within two days, media reports suggested, citing a military source.
The main aim of the offensive was to liberate Ramadi, which has been occupied by Daesh militants since May. Daesh, which is an extremist jihadist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries, which denounces Shia Muslims, who make up almost 70 percent of the Iraqi population, as heretics. It has seized large areas in Syria and Iraq in 2014, declaring a caliphate on territories under its control, carrying out numerous terror attacks and committing many human rights atrocities in the country.
