BAGHDAD
The Daesh militant group has detained 230 Iraqis over the last two days for organizing anti-Daesh protests in Iraq’s western Anbar province, a provincial official said Sunday.
“Thirty people were detained by the terrorist group on Sunday in the western town of Al-Rutba following raids on their homes,” Emad al-Duleimi, a local official, told Anadolu Agency.
He said the latest spate of detentions had brought the total number of people detained since Saturday for organizing anti-Daesh demonstrations to 230.
A U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition, he added, “has not acted to save those being held by the militant group from a possible massacre”.
“Local residents want to rise up against Daesh, but they don’t have the resources -- especially weapons -- to fight the terrorists,” he said.
Iraq has suffered a severe security vacuum since June of last year, when Daesh overran Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city located in the northern Nineveh province.
Although Daesh has since lost several parts of the Nineveh, Diyala and Saladin provinces, it remains in control of Mosul, along with several parts of next-door Syria.
