Tip-offs from local residents, coupled with military intelligence efforts, have netted a large number of "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) elements and collaborators in liberated east Mosul, Iraqi officials tell Diyaruna.

Since east Mosul was brought back under Iraqi control earlier this year, security forces have arrested more than 250 wanted individuals, according to the Ninawa Directorate of Intelligence and Counter-terrorism.

In March alone, about 70 ISIL elements were arrested in accordance with article 4 of Iraq's anti-terrorism law, said deputy director Col. Taha Abdullah Abd.

"Many of them had formed sleeper cells and were involved in acts of murder and robbery," he told Diyaruna.

"There are arrest warrants against them based on testimonies of their victims and eyewitnesses who recognized them and reported on them," he said.

Breaking up sleeper cells

Local residents recently helped security forces locate an ISIL hideout in al-Zuhoor neighbourhood, which led to a March 20th raid and the arrest of five individuals who had formed an ISIL sleeper cell.

The directorate "has received reports from citizens who reported on their family members or relatives who had joined ISIL, and the information they provided helped us find and arrest them", Abd said.

Tip-offs from members of the public also have helped security forces identify residents who have co-operated with ISIL or financed its operations by buying real estate or other property from the group, Abdullah said.

Intelligence agencies are actively tracking ISIL sleeper cells in Mosul in order to eliminate the threat they pose, security adviser Fadel Abu Ragheef told Diyaruna.

"These agencies, in co-operation with Iraqi citizens, have been able to carry out many quality operations that have led to the arrest of senior terrorists," he said.

Among them was "a dangerous ISIL element who is considered the 'black box' for the group's secrets, activities and wealth inside and outside Iraq", he said.

Abu Ragheef would not identity the detainee "for security reasons", but said the detainee is now in the custody of the Falcons intelligence unit.

Reporting on relatives

On March 23rd, one local resident led the security forces to his brother, who belongs to ISIL, Abu Ragheef said.

"When asked why he reported on his brother, he said his brother used to flog him for smoking cigarettes and that he was responsible for terrorising many citizens," he said.

Some detainees have confessed to killing a member of their family -- even their own father -- in accordance with ISIL's orders, Abu Ragheef said.

"Today, the people of Mosul do not want to see any terrorist who has committed crimes against them and destroyed them free," he said, adding that they are fully co-operating to removed all traces of the group from their areas.

"Mosul residents were caught in the fire of terror and suffered a lot from it," Ninawa provincial council member Hassan Shubeib al-Sabawi told Diyaruna.

"This is what is pushing them now to report on terrorist elements, even if they are family members or relatives," he said, stressing the need, however, to be careful not to arrest innocent people solely on the basis of "malicious reports".

Security agencies must investigate all reports carefully, he said, as "some of them may be due to enmities or personal interests, thus inflicting injustice upon people who are not guilty".

"In return, we ask citizens to do everything in their power to help establish peace and stability in their areas," he said.