Local sleeper cells in Kurdistan highlight evolving extremist threat

SULAIMANIYA - Security forces have uncovered two cells of ethnically Kurdish militants with purported ties to the Islamic State (IS) inside Iraqi Kurdistan in recent weeks, highlighting an evolution in the threat posed by the violent extremist group as it maintains a presence in northern Iraq.

Two members of Kurdistan's Asayesh security service were killed in an operation on Aug. 10 to uncover one of the cells, in the Qaradagh Mountain, where authorities uncovered an effort to build a network of tunnels to function as a headquarters from which to commit targeted killings .