ISIS threatens Iraq polling stations ahead of voting
ISIS is also coaxing Iraqi Sunnis to boycott May 12 elections
Baghdad, April 23: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group has threatened to attack Iraqi polling stations and voters during parliamentary elections next month.
In a message posted to the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al- Muhajir called on Sunni Iraqis to boycott the May 12 polls, the first since Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi declared victory over the jihadists in December.
“Oh Sunnis... we know that the government of Rafida ( a pejorative Arabic term for Shias) is on the verge of what they call elections,” he said.
“Our judgement will apply to those who call for them and participate in them... The voting centres and those in them are targets for our swords, so stay away from them and do not walk nearby.”
Sunni extremist groups have long targeted Shias, a majority in Iraq.
Jihadist groups in Iraq have targeted every election since the 2003 US- led invasion that deposed Saddam Hussein and paved the way for Shias to dominate every government since.
Meanwhile, Iraq said on Sunday that its forces had killed “36 terrorists” belonging to the ISIS jihadist group, including senior members, in air raids this past week in Syria.
A video of Thursday’s operation showed two F- 16 fighter jets destroying a house in eastern Syria.
“The Iraqi air raids, carried out by several F- 16s in Syria on April 19, targeted IS terrorists who represented a danger to Iraq,” said General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command ( JOC), which coordinates the fight against ISIS in Iraq.
“According to our information, the raids took place while there was a meeting of terrorist leaders and it achieved its goal with the death of 36 of them,” he said.
The US- led coalition battling ISIS jihadists confirmed the raid, which took place near the town of Hajin in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, about 50 kilometres from the Iraqi border.
“These raids prove Iraq’s commitment to destroy the remnants of ISIS that continue to threaten citizens,” Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi’s office said on Thursday, adding that the operation was planned and executed by JOC, with support from the coalition.