Today, Thursday, a high-level government security delegation arrived in Diyala Governorate (eastern Iraq) to contain sectarian violence, after an attack launched by the Islamic State on the village of Al-Rashad on Tuesday night;

As a result, dozens of people were killed and injured.

After the attack, gunmen from the village of al-Rashad launched a "revenge attack" on a neighboring village, killing and destroying orchards.

The Iraqi National Security Adviser said - in a statement - that a security delegation headed by National Security Adviser Qassem Al-Araji, and the membership of Interior Minister Othman Al-Ghanimi, Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army Abdul Amir Yarallah, and Minister of Migration and Displacement Evan Faeq;

He arrived in Diyala province.

A security source, led by Diyala Police, said that the delegation came to contain the sectarian escalation among the residents of Muqdadiya district and villages, noting that since Tuesday night, after the ISIS attack, some villages in Muqdadiya district witnessed a wave of displacement for fear of revenge operations for sectarian reasons.

The arrival of the delegation coincides with sending reinforcements from the army and police to Diyala Governorate in the wake of the two attacks.

The terrorists tried what we did.

Deny what we swear.

We will pursue them wherever they flee, inside and outside Iraq;

And the crime of Muqdadiya against our people will not pass without retribution... Oh God, so bear witness.


The more they shed innocent blood, the more we insist that we end any trace of them in the land of Mesopotamia.

— Mustafa Al-Kadhimi

Yesterday, Wednesday, the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, directed the security forces to intensify the intelligence effort to prevent attacks, vowing retribution against the perpetrators of the "Muqdadiya crime", according to a statement issued by a military spokesman.

A spokesman for the Iraqi Army's Joint Operations Command, Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, said - in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency (INA) - that the authorities have strengthened the security presence in Muqdadiya by sending two brigades from the Rapid Response Forces (affiliated to the Interior), a regiment from the Anti-Terrorism Service (the army's elite) and another regiment. From the army, along with constant monitoring by military aviation.

He added, "It will carry out qualitative and surprising operations based on intelligence information to pursue the terrorists involved in the attack on the village of al-Rashad."

He said that ISIS is trying to stir up sedition because it is unable to confront the security forces.

revenge attack

Sources told Al-Jazeera that the village of Nahr al-Imam, affiliated to the city of Muqdadiya in the Iraqi province of Diyala, is witnessing a mass exodus of dozens of families for fear of revenge killings, after it was attacked at dawn on Wednesday by masked gunmen.

The sources stated that the families were displaced due to the inability of the security forces to impose security and prevent the militants from storming the village after an attack on the nearby village of al-Rashad on Tuesday night.

The bodies of the dead Muqdadiya who were killed by the “Islamic State” organization (Reuters)

On Tuesday evening, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced the killing of 11 Iraqis in an attack by the Islamic State on the village of al-Rashad.

Reports indicated that the attack killed and wounded dozens of civilians from the "Bani Tamim" tribe.

The media described the attack as the largest for the organization in years.

In 2017, Iraq announced victory over the Islamic State by restoring its entire territory, which was estimated to be about a third of the country's area, which the organization invaded in the summer of 2014, but it still maintains sleeper cells and launches attacks between varying periods.