Iraqi military to arm residents of 50 Mosul villages

By Amer al-Hassani

BAGHDAD (AA) - The Iraqi military on Thursday announced plans to arm residents of 50 villages near the city of Mosul, provincial capital of the northern Nineveh province.

“Following a meeting with local tribal chiefs, the army chief-of-staff decided to arm residents of 50 villages near Mosul to allow them to defend themselves against possible terrorist attacks,” Brigadier-General Najm al-Jabouri, head of the army’s Nineveh Operations Command, said in a statement.

Earlier Thursday, five people -- from the same family -- were killed near Mosul in an attack by the Daesh terrorist group, according to the Defense Ministry.

The terrorists attacked the home of a district governor in ​​the village of Al-Lazzagah, killing him and four members of his family.

In late 2017, Baghdad declared that Daesh's military presence in Iraq had been eradicated following a three-year war between the terrorist group and the army.

The latter, however, continues to carry out frequent operations against Daesh “sleeper cells” which it says remain active in certain parts of the country.